Anchor Bolts what to do?

[whejdak]

I have five PD58 anchor bolts in the concrete now. They are for a two pole car lift. One of the poles went in flawlessly with anchors seating as suppose to. I did the same to the other post but when I tapped in the anchors and tried to back them out to seat them, they spin in the hole. I wasn't sure what it meant so I put the pole on top of them and tightened them down. What happen was that the anchor and plate tightened together but not to the concrete. I noticed that the pole had actually pulled away from the concrete pulling the anchor with it about 1/4 to maybe 1/2 inch after making several lifts. So, My question is.... if I can remove those anchors and put epoxy into the hole and put the anchors back, will they hold? I'd hate to have to re-drill 5 new holes. I might even be able to pound them down and out and replace with new anchors. I'm just not sure why they didn't grab the concrete like the first five did.

Bill

 

[Zeke]

I don't know if epoxy is to be trusted in that scenario. If you do it, blow out the hole with air and get the bolt fully coated. We do this in construction for anchor bolts, but we have one every 4' along a wall. As a gang, they work (according to the engineers).

Having all the bolts in a small circle for a lift has always concerned me.

 

[rlitman]

The hole was probably too dusty. Even when using the wedge bolts without epoxy, you should blow out the hole before putting the bolt in.
Other possibility is that the drill bit got bent, and made a hole that was too large, or a little tapered. That could stop the wedge from grabbing well.
An epoxy anchor typically has more pullout resistance than a wedge anchor anyway (not accounting for creep issues), so your best bet now is to clean out the hole, and get some epoxy and glue-in anchors. No big deal.

 

[whejdak]

I was able to remove the bolts from the post and move it. The anchors are all loose. There is no way they are going to back out like I thought. After they are above the concrete surface maybe 1/2 inch they stop moving and that's that. So I tapped them down a little further below the initial settings into the concrete and tried to set them again. This time they tightened up and don't spin anymore. I put the lift pole back over the holes and have tightened them up again. I guess I'll just watch very closely. But I don't feel comfortable. Then again, I don't feel comfortable about anything that weighs a couple of tons over my head. If I have to drill the new holes, it will be epoxy for sure.

Bill

 

[dittle fart around]

There are epoxy kits available for industrial uses. We used them setting 500kv breaker in substations. Check out Hilti