Embeds, base plates, and anchor bolts in Orange County
This is the cheapest work on the site and the most expensive to get wrong. Embeds, base plates, and anchor bolts go into the formwork before the concrete truck shows up. Once the pour goes off, whatever you set is where the steel has to land.
Half an inch off on a bolt group and the column will not sit. Every fix from there is a bad one: field drill and epoxy new anchors and get the engineer to sign it, cut and re detail the base plate, or break out concrete. The AISC Code of Standard Practice puts the placement tolerance between rods in a group at plus or minus an eighth of an inch, and it is that tight for a reason.
So we set them with a template, tie them so the vibrator cannot walk them, shoot the elevations, and check the layout against the column line before anybody pours. Then we come back after the pour and check again. That second visit takes five minutes and occasionally saves a week.
What that includes.
- Anchor bolt templates fabricated and set
- Base plates, leveling nuts, and shim packs
- Column and post bases set to line and elevation
- Embed and weld plates set into formwork
- Post pour verification before steel is called to site
- Epoxy anchors drilled and set when a layout has to be corrected
Questions we get on this one.
The concrete is poured and the bolts are wrong. Now what?
Call before you do anything else. Usually the answer is epoxy anchors on a corrected layout with the engineer's approval, and sometimes it is a new base plate detail. Both are fixable. What is not fixable is a column welded to a base that never lined up.
Do you set the bolts, or does the concrete contractor?
Either works. If we are erecting the steel we would rather set them ourselves, because then the layout is on us. If your concrete crew is setting them, send us the embed drawing and we will come check it before the pour. That visit is cheap next to the alternative.
What is an embed plate for?
It is a steel plate cast flush into concrete with studs on the back, so that later there is something to weld to. Ledger angles, canopy brackets, stair stringers, and railing posts all attach that way. You cannot weld to concrete, so the plate goes in early.
This is licensed work. OC Mobile Welding LLC holds CSLB C-51 #1157116, C-51 Structural Steel, current and active. Working out of San Clemente, CA.