Before anyone digs or cores, get a utility locate. In Ontario that’s Ontario One Call; every province has an equivalent. A slab can hide conduit, radiant heat or post-tension cables: scan it before coring.
Steps (Reliance Foundry, steel pipe bollard)
- Check for utilities, and whether your municipality needs a permit for the work.
- Core-drill the concrete so the hole is at least 2 in larger than the bollard base at every point.
- Auger below the cored hole to depth: below the local frost line. The building department can tell you what it is for your area.
- Fill the hole with concrete mixed to the texture of mouldable clay and set the pipe plumb in it.
- Fill the whole pipe with concrete and dome the top (concrete, a cap or a cover).
- Let it cure at least 2–3 days before anything leans on it.
A crash-rated example (McCue CrashCore S10 and S20)
McCue’s F3016-rated CrashCore is also core-drilled, and its drawing is specific: a 10 in (254 mm) concrete pier, 42 in (1,067 mm) deep, around a 4 in steel core, in 3,000 psi minimum concrete with #3 rebar at 12 in each way, on compacted crushed limestone. McCue supplies the core, cover, rebar cage and hardware: “everything but the concrete”. Follow the maker’s drawing exactly; the rating depends on it.
Frost in Canada
Frost depth is the reason Canadian footings go deeper than a US install video shows. A post whose footing sits above frost can heave and tilt over a few winters. Your municipality’s building department publishes the depth to use.