attaching wood railing and posts to tiled concrete

[yamaha83]

i have a 700 square foot concrete patio that has 12X24 through bodied tile laid on top of it. i want to add some wooden railing around the entire thing with a pergola covering half of it. im pretty comfortable with wood work, but not real sure the best way to attach the railing to the patio as well as to the house? do i need to attach to the house or just the patio? the house is brick if that makes a difference? i assume i will have to drill some type of anchor bolt into the concrete, but whats the best way to drill and attach the posts without cracking the tile? surface mount or mount to the vertical edge of the patio? i had a contractor that was supposed to do the job and has skipped out leaving me to finish...

[hj]

You can do either with the right drill bit, but the real question is what kind of anchors will you be using on the fence posts?

[yamaha83]

i was told it would be best to use something like this

http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CHYQ8wIwAA#

with some expansion sheild drop in anchors?

[jadnashua]

If you have access to the side of the slab and it is thick enough (you'll need some length that is supported on the side to provide decent strength and the slab may not be thick enough), you could put the post in from the side. The bracket you showed would work as well. You'd need a big enough hole to then install a lead anchor. Drilling through porcelain will require a diamond core bit. You want that hole large enough so that there's no chance the bolt or the expansion anchor will be pushing on it. Drill the hole deep enough for the expansion anchor to go below the tile. If the tile are properly adhered to the slab with thinset, drilling through them shouldn't crack anything. There are other brackets that would work that only use a center hole and hold the wooden post up off the bottom to help prevent moisture damage. They don't provide as much lateral support, but depending on how well the corner posts and the rest of the structure is designed, may be more than adequate in holding the post in place.

[cacher_chick]

I once did something similar with a railing on the top of a retaining wall.

I core drilled the top of the wall and installed lengths of 3/4" galvanized pipe which stuck up about foot, and then center drilled the 4x4 wood posts so that they slid down tightly over the pipe.