I've recently had a frame installed by one of the local Ironworks companies (see attached pictures). This frame is made out of 1/4" steel is intended to hold horizontal 6" IPE wood boards with 1/4" spacing in between. My concern is the 10 feet section of the assembly shown in the picture. It's suspended about 1" from the tile and currently held in place by a few weld fillets against the railing in the back as shown in the picture. Occasionally, we get 100mph+ wind gusts in the area and I am worried whether this type and amount of welding is strong enough to resist such winds. Should I maybe ask the company to come back and weld more fillets? Thank you in advance.
Best Answer
As long as the weld has made good penetration into the two metal surfaces you should be fine. From my experience the only way the weld would fail is through metal fatigue which involves a consistent flexing or bending of the metal. I don't see this happening (or it is highly unlikely) given that the steel posts (they appear to be C channel or columns) will be tied together by the horizontal IPE boards making it a rigid structure. You would probably get more failure to the welds from seismic movement than from sheer wind force.