Anchor Bolt Problem - They are too short. Ideas?

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Jetboy

Jetboy

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Sep 16, 2004
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The crew that poured my garage didn't give me enough stub out on my anchor bolts. I'm using two sill plates and I made sure they knew I needed about 4.5" stubbed out, but many are only about 3". So they basically screwed me on trying to get a washer and nut on them.

I don't think it's feasible to weld them. The only ideas I have at this point are to drill and epoxy new ones or to find some sort of threaded coupler to add some length.

Any great ideas on how to make them longer?
 
Thread coupler and some high strenghth loctite might work. I'd consult an engineer. You don't want to get it wrong.
 
Typically, you bolt the first sill plate down and then the second sill plate is built as part of the wall - which gets nailed to the first sill plate. Couplers are going to be expensive for that short a length. Sorry I don't have a better picture, but you can make out the pressure treated sill plate that they are standing the rest of the framed wall (with its own sill plate) up on.

wall framing.jpg
 
I would bolt the PT sills down, then just drill oversized holes in the 2nd plate, drop them over the bolts, then lag or LedgerLok them together.
 
Possibly I missunderstood the engineering wrt the anchor bolts. I'm using the 1/4" thich 3x3" square washers. Wouldn't those case issues with putting the second sill plate on top of them in the sense that they would not allow sill plate #2 to rest normally on the PT sill plate? It was my assumption that the large square washers had to go on top of the top sill plate.
 
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PAToyota said:
Typically, you bolt the first sill plate down and then the second sill plate is built as part of the wall - which gets nailed to the first sill plate. Couplers are going to be expensive for that short a length. Sorry I don't have a better picture, but you can make out the pressure treated sill plate that they are standing the rest of the framed wall (with its own sill plate) up on.
Click to expand...

Yeah.
Every house i've ever been around while framing that used anchor bolts, only had a single sill plate. The second plate was part of the wall and holes were drilled with a hole shooter bit in the bottom wall plate so the wall went over the ancor bolts and was nailed down.
 
Joe_E said:
Yeah.
Every house i've ever been around while framing that used anchor bolts, only had a single sill plate. The second plate was part of the wall and holes were drilled with a hole shooter bit in the bottom wall plate so the wall went over the ancor bolts and was nailed down.
Click to expand...

Then the outside sheeting goes over both sill and wall framing to tie it all together.
 
How would you install one of these?
049c-2013.gif


I need a handful of these ties as well. I think they need to go on top of both sill plates.
 
Never saw those before.
Does it get bolted down on anchor bolt then get nailed to a stud?
Some kind of storm requirement?


Jetboy said:
How would you install one of these?


I need a handful of these ties as well. I think they need to go on top of both sill plates.
Click to expand...
 
Yep. Bolted down first. Then a s*** load of joist hanger nails. Every hole gets a nail... Takes me about 10 minutes to put them all in.

They are required for shear wall earthquake design. More common these days are straps set in the concrete. I should have gone that route. That was my original design, but my structural engineer drew these.

They install like this:
049e-2013.gif
 
Just bolt the straps down according to the drawing and cut your second bottom plate short. Or, you can rip the portion of the second bp in half under where the strap sits to accommodate catching some of the threads on the bolt. The sheeting should tie it all together
 
I've never seen ties going from the concrete all the way up to the top plates. That's really interesting. I think those threaded couplers would work. I ended up with a chisel and a hammer and made some space for my square washers to set down about a 1/2" into the top of the sill plates and was able to get a nut on them. Not ideal, but I think it should work. Inspector is coming today.
 
Jetboy said:
Yep. Bolted down first. Then a s*** load of joist hanger nails. Every hole gets a nail... Takes me about 10 minutes to put them all in.

They are required for shear wall earthquake design. More common these days are straps set in the concrete. I should have gone that route. That was my original design, but my structural engineer drew these.

They install like this:
049e-2013.gif
Click to expand...

Use an air palm nailer to put the nails in the hanger...and I would forego trying to make the bolts line up to install that hanger through the bottom sill plate...install your studs with top and bottom plates, and drill and epoxy them in after the fact (before the sheeting)

On the short bolt issue add just install two sill plates, if the height (an extra 1-1/2") doesn't matter. You would obviously have to take and drill a hole for the extended length of the anchor bolt, and then probably router the bottom of the wood to accommodate the 1/4" washer. Deduct your labor from the the guy who set the bolts remaining payment,,caused you added aggravation and work.
 
On my engineering drawings, I have switched to using Simpson Titen HD anchors. They are a big concrete screw, kinda like a tapcon, but you can get them in 1/2 and 5/8 as well as others diameters. The issue with epoxy anchors is if the temperature is too hot or cold, the concrete is damp, or if you don't scrub the hole, the epoxy won't get the strength needed.


Call your engineer and pick his brain. It shouldn't cost you much if anything. For my clients, I probably wouldn't charge anything. I am only telling you what I would do in my states I am licensed in.

We just got done with a project where they set the anchors to shallow for a 30,000 gallon tank and worked through that. Some anchor rods (not bolts anymore) aren't gonna be hard to change.

Welcom to the international building codes.
 
What are your thoughts on wedge anchor bolts? That was what I had intended to use. I was able to make all the original ones work. Inspector now wants one on each side of every sill plate joint. I think that would make more sense with a single sill plate, but on double sill plates on a 24' wall I used two 12' PT plates on the bottom and 3 8' on top to stagger the joints. The inspector wants anchor bolts about 6" on each side of every joint. That means two anchor bolts 10-12" apart on a double sill plate.
 
Another option to use the existing bolts, would be to buy a pressure treated 4" x 6" and then drill it to accommodate the washers and nuts.
 
I bet the inspector is not used to seeing double plates. Give the engineer a call and ask about the joints.

If you we're using a single plate, you need to have anchor rods within 12" of a corner and of the end of a plate.

If it was easy, old women and kids would be building.
 
I have about 50 gallons of epoxy for a project I'm working on (composite sailboat). I could mix up a little of that epoxy for the bolts. It's about twice the strength of typical anchor resin which I'd guess is probably polyurethane resin.
 
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