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I have brass anchors like below in the concrete deck around my pool.

Today, when I was raising the inner screw to install the cover, the screw was being very difficult. Trying to raise it, the inner piece snapped. Now I'm left with a the inner piece broken and no way to loosen/raise the inner screw.

What is the best way to remove the entire device without damaging the concrete?

EDIT: Anchors were installed after the concrete was dry, so there is no conformance to the shape of the anchor.

brass anchor

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  • There isn't one - damaging the concrete is required for removal. You can go anywhere from a diamond core drill a bit larger than the anchor (on the drill bit's inside) to a sledgehammer (ie, degrees of damage can vary) but you cannot get that out without "damage" - it's locked into the concrete by its shape.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 1:40
  • @Ecnerwal - see edit above. Anchors were installed after the concrete was dry.
    – Jason
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 14:57

3 Answers 3

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Being Brass, the anchor is nice and easy to drill, Just get a Steel drill and slowly drill into the remaining anchor. once you have drilled through 90% of the brass, take a long nose pliers and "implode" the rest of the material into itself.

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A slide hammer would be the most likely to work in that case. Drill a hole in the broken part, screw in the tip of a slide hammer, hammer it up and out.

enter image description here

Using a penetrating lubricant and a screw extractor to get the broken threaded part (only) out would be an alternate approach.

Be sure to apply anti-seize to the threads of all the ones that still work, and the new one, to reduce your odds of having this type of problem in the future.

enter image description here

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Here is the professional method. Buy yourself a reverse drill bit, an easy out driver and start with a center punch to guide your drill bit. Remember to operate your drill in reverse as you drill a hole using a professional-grade metal cutting wax such as Relton Stick-Kut, then use an easy-out driver with plenty of straight, even down pressure to slowly remove the fastener. This method is used all over the world to take critical bolts out of engine parts that have snapped off. It's also used in construction and in manufacturing. Before you attempt any of this, drench the fastener in a professional-grade penetrating oil such as Kano Kroil. After your inner bolt is out, you need to run a bottoming tap inside there to make sure the threads are clean so this does not happen again. If any of these things don't make sense, search these terms in youtube for step by step instructions.

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    Commented Feb 15, 2020 at 19:53

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