Hey T-nation new here but I’ve been lurking for years now and finally decided to make an account. I just moved and I’m having a rough time getting solid information on how to anchor my old Samson pulldown rack to my cement garage floor. It used to just rest against a big main beam in my garage with no attachments but the ceiling is too high where I’m at now. I’ve googled it and mainly just get exercise technique videos and power rack advice. I called the company and they said they wouldn’t tell me anything about how to do it for liability reasons and to go ask Home Depot. I’m hesitant to take their advice. I have little faith in my local Home Depot. Just trying to get some solid safe advice because I miss lat pull downs and being able to do my cable crap. If anybody’s done something similar and you’re not dead from it let me know how you went about it or if you have a link to some proper cement anchoring info. The base is 2x2 and its 8 feet tall with four holes for a 1/2" bolt at the bottom. I have just a basic concrete floor in the garage from what it looks like. I’m not too sure how to post pics from my phone yet. It wouldn’t let me copy and paste so if a visual is needed I’ll bust out the computer.
Assuming I understood the issue.
Option 1: get a hammer drill, dynabolts of appropriate dize) and a masonry bit (probably a number of them, starting from thin to the bolt thickness). Mark the holes, drill them out, screw the bolts in
Option 2: Get 3 or 4 sheets of thickish ply (enough for the length of your bolts). Glue and screw the wood together. Drill holes for your bolts. Bolt it in. You’ll need to countersink the nut on the underside so it is flat - you should use a socket to hold the nut so the countersink hole should be that wide).
Alternatively you can use screws and skip the nut issue but I dont find this as good.
Make sure to put some varnish on your wood (after gluing but before bolting/screwing) to protect it.
@tsantos Okay sweet thanks I feel like Option 1 is gonna be my best bet. How deep in the concrete do you think would be necessary to hold it down and keep it from falling forward? I have no clue how thick the concrete in a garage usually is. Should I just go for broke and get some long ass dynabolts that go as far as the bits? Because the bolt will travel through the frame before it touches the concrete and it’s like 2.5-3" square steel tube
When was your house built? Most likely 4"
You should be able to find a strength rating for each size bolt. Get it based on that. I’d be surprised if your concrete was too thin but if you drill and hit dirt it’s time to think of plan b (you should be able to guage the thickness of the concrete by checking out the edge)
I own a condo building in NYC and had a similar situation, but I was loathe to drill holes in the building’s basement floor due to numerous pipes and unknown items underneath a ~100 year old foundation, so I opted to simply not drill into the floor.
I got a three very large sheets of 3/4 plywood, put one on the floor.
Framed it with 2X4s
Framed it internally with 2X4s at 8 inches and then put in a lot of pieces going at 90 degrees using metal connectors you see in hurricane areas for rafters.
Filled the voids with pea gravel for weight.
Attached the second piece of plywood to the top.
Attached the third to the top of that plywood.
All in was $400, including delivery of the supplies, which I suspect is about double the cost of a good set of carbide drill bits, but less than the cost of bits plus a good drill.
I did this 10 years ago and have had zero problems.
I like this! Like you, I would hesitate disrupting the garage’s concrete floor.
You should post a picture so we can see your set up and what is possible
Alright so I totally went to Home Depot and bought 4 anchors for like 10 bucks and rented a hammer drill for like 30-something with two bits. Turns out they don’t need to be super deep either and holy shit it’s so solid. All the material for a platform was gonna cost me quite a bit. I thought about doing it for a minute but went the cheaper route. Me and my friend went King Kong on it to test the durability considering it’s gonna be there for a while and I don’t want to risk getting pancaked and I can safely say it’s stuck in there good. I’ll post a picture soon
That should do it pretty well.
Here’s a site for a major manufacturer, and probably the ones you purchased-
and the specs are available under the type of product. Half inch anchors should be way more than enough to tolerate anything you can dish out.