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I am considering installing a pull up bar in my basement. My concrete ceiling has these anchors (not sure if it's the correct term, please check the picture) about 90cm apart from each other in a network that used to hold the metal frame of a drop ceiling.

According to the contractor that built the house, each of these anchors can hold 100-120 kgs.

I weight approximately 80 kgs.

The idea is to re-use 4 of these anchor holes to disperse my weight, possibly in an H shaped design:

  • screw back the fasteners in each of the 4 anchor holes (corners of the H)
  • connect 2x2 fasteners together in parallel with some sort of support bar (vertical sides of the H)
  • connect the 2 support bars together in the middle with the pull up bar itself (horizontal line in H)

I'm not a professional so I would appreciate all sorts of comments or ideas about whether this is actually a sound idea or not.

enter image description here

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  • Those are very interesting anchors. I can understand trying to use them to hang the pull-up bar because it reduces obstruction below it compared to a bar on a stand. How would you go about finding the right pitch of threads for bolts to go into those anchors? How deep are the holes? What would have been the original purpose of these anchors? Were they designed for a substantial "pull-out" force or were they designed for lateral resistance, e.g., to prevent toppling of tall shelves or a rack supported by the floor. Where is this -- country, city?
    – Jim Stewart
    Aug 16, 2017 at 11:34
  • @JimStewart - The anchors were used for holding up the metal frame of a drop ceiling according to the OP.
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Aug 16, 2017 at 14:20
  • Yikes I didn't read carefully. If they were designed for a dropped ceiling, then I would not assume they could support the weight of a person on a pull up bar.
    – Jim Stewart
    Aug 16, 2017 at 17:48
  • @JimStewart These anchors were used for a drop ceiling, 20mm deep, 9 mm wide holes. According to the contractor (and the product description) they can hold up to 120kgs, but as Michael Karas points out, actually trusting it is an issue. By the way, this is from Japan, I believe the usage of these anchors is fairly widespread around this area.
    – vivasra
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:05

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Even though those existing anchors may be able to hold you up as you hang from the bar do you really want to trust it? I know I would not trust it. Hanging anything from a concrete ceiling is risky.

Hey even look at the fastener that you put in the picture. There is a fracture in the concrete that passes right through that area.

I would strongly suggest that you devise some type of stand for the pullup bar that sits on the floor and is built with materials that you know and trust to be reliable. Something like building an A-Frame assembly on two sides to hold up the bar.

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  • Thank you! As a complementary question, is there any reliable (and non-destructive) way of actually testing how much these holes may hold?
    – vivasra
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:07
  • No real way to know unless test to pull out
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:23
  • By then it is too late to use it.
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:24
  • right, but that's the destructive way that I really want to avoid. I guess the answer is no and I should resist the temptation of using those anchors.
    – vivasra
    Aug 17, 2017 at 0:47
  • Risk mitigation alone says to not use those. You almost always want to use concrete anchors with load vector in the direction of the concrete surface.
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Aug 17, 2017 at 1:02

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