gate and railings

[white van man 2]

having now more or less got to grips with the mig, i'm wanting to make some railings for the front of the garden, which currently has nothing to separate it from the big world.

assuming i make them from "normal" steel, how do i fix them in place? it will be roughtly 3 metres x 1 metre L shape with no conveniant wall to attach it to at either end. do i just have sticky down legs to bury in concrete? if yes, how do i stop them rusting inside the concrete?

 

[weldingscotty803]

get them galvanised and powdercoated

 

[Hitch]

Id make the whole lot as one if you can, makes fitting easy. That wont be ideal if you go for the galvanised option though, for that, id make the 3m run, and the 1 m bolted on.

Youd want a post at each end, one in the corner and one in the middle of the 3m long side.

Dig the holes, prop it in place and chuck in a bag of post-crete at each hole.

 

[white van man 2]

i'd guess that having it all done in galv will be prohibitively (oooOOOooo, big word!) expensive

would zinc rich primer before painting it work?

i had intended to make it all up as one thing and then install it - i figured it'd be easier to get it level. having a longer sticky down post at each end, in the corner and two in the middle of the longer run (which i've just been and measured, it's actually 4.3m) which will probably end up being 50mm box. how do i treat the inside against rust?

sorry for the dumb questions, not used to building this sort of thing

 

[Bsmith]

You only have to worry about protecting the steel above the concrete, whats below will be fine.

 

[white van man 2]

thanks for your help guys. i'll have a play and work out how much steel i'm gonna need then get some pics up as soon as i got them made.

 

[white van man 2]

one more daft question: assuming the railings are going to be 1100 mm above ground and supported every 1000mm, how deep do i need to bury the support post?

 

[Welderpaul]

Depends on the ground. Usually make the 'root' of the post 450mm, with a bit of flat or round welded to form a foot. Increase the root to 600mm if the ground is soft.

 

[white van man 2]

the ground is loveley and solid. lots of cotswold stone once you got down more than about 6" digging the veg plot was a nightmare