UKC

Anybody got any experience or good knowledge of putting bolts in medium hardness sandstone??

I was think the big twisty staples and doing them deep and with resin, but don't know what is best.

Any info appreciated, cheers,

Ed

In reply to Ed Booth:

Jim Titt should be able to tell you what to do:

http://www.bolt-products.com/ProtectionBolts.htm

In reply to Ed Booth:

BMC were involved in both Frogsmouth and Pex Hill (belays only here) I think. From the Friends of Pex Facebook page: "Rob Dyer BMC and Dan Middleton BMC. Many thanks to the BMC for their support."

In reply to Ed Booth:
my brother Jim supplied the bolts for Frogsmouth, Pex Hill and St Bees. He also supplied the bolts for Staple Edge Quarry (Ruspidge West Quarry) which I then fitted. The 8x200mm twisted leg bolts should do all that you want.

In reply to AlanLittle:



Possibly! I´ ve probably made bolts for half the worlds sandstone areas by now, sent a load to Utah last week. The popular ones for the medium sandstone in Germany are usually 150mm deep but if drilling is no object then 200´ s are popular as well. Places like St Bees they even go up to 300mm which personally I reckon is a bit over the top but at least they can be sure about them!
A lot of the time people install bolts which really are far too long, rock is suprisingly strong but on the other hand it´ s only a bit more drilling and a bit more money so in absence of a tester to really know what to fit it´ s the easier option to just go a bit longer to be on the safe side.

In reply to jimtitt:

That’s great thanks . I’ll be in touch at some point

In reply to Ed Booth:

I placed a couple of test bolts for Frogsmouth, 120mm long Bolt Products ones reached 20kN which was the limit of the tester available, which meets the UIAA standard. We opted for 150mm long ones for the rebolt just to be sure. The rock there has a hard weathered crust but behind this it is so soft that you had to stop cleaning out the hole with a hole cleaning brush because it just turned the rock into sand.

Make sure you use a decent resin, PM me if you need any advice on this or anything else. Also Jim's website is a great source of knowledge, and his bolts are pretty good too!

In reply to jimtitt:

Would a couple of larger deep expansion bolts be o.k do you think for the two oner off bolts?? And then use glue ins for the rest?? It's probably a bit more consistent than frogsmouth and certainly the top part of the crag is good hard black sandstone.

In reply to Ed Booth:

The problem with expansion bolts in some sandstone is as mentioned above the crust is hard but inside where the expansion clip is the rock tends to be much softer and they start getting loose if they get loaded repetitively. Depends on the sandstone really, there´ s stuff in the USA which is bullet hard all the way in and other areas where the bolts just never tighten up properly.
I´ ve sent out 16mm bolts and hangers for the highline guys which worked o.k (I´ ve still some in stock) but for sport climbing I´ d just use glue-ins all the way, changing systems halfway seems kinda wierd!