Category FAQs

Plastic anchor sleeves are manufactured in standard sizes for common diameters, and these standard parts are mass-produced and stocked by Portland Bolt. Anchor bolt sleeves exist for most diameters, but there are some less used diameters, such as 1-1/8” diameter, for which plastic anchor sleeves are not made. When an anchor sleeve is required for one of the less used diameter anchor bolts, the installer has two options. The first option is to take a sleeve for a smaller diameter anchor bolt and enlarge the holes by cutting away plastic or slotting the sleeve. The obvious downside to this method is that it is labor-intensive, potentially challenging, and also the smaller sleeve would offer less space for the anchor bolt to be adjusted and for the installer to work with.

The manufacturing companies that produce these plastic sleeves recommend a second, less labor-intensive option of using a larger anchor bolt sleeve size and duct taping the sleeve securely to the anchor bolt. For example, if you were installing a 1-1/8” diameter anchor bolt you would use a 1-1/4” diameter sleeve and tape/secure the sleeve into the proper position. This allows the installer to use a standard mass-produced part and install this sleeve with the lowest amount of hassle and labor. As always, an engineer should be consulted to be sure that all aspects are thought through and no conflicts or issues would arise from using either installation option.

No. The tooling and equipment used to manufacture plastic anchor bolt sleeves are designed exclusively for the standard sizes shown in our sizing chart.  These standard sizes are mass-produced using tooling that has a large set-up cost and engineers design around these standard-sized sleeves. Essentially this means that the standard plastic anchor bolt sleeves are the only sizes available and that custom plastic sleeves are not an option. In the event that a standard sleeve cannot be used, then potentially other solutions should be considered such as welded pipe sleeves.

Sinco, Inc., also known as Sinco Products, Inc., was a construction products company that manufactured plastic anchor bolt sleeves, among other products, many years ago.  Roughly in the year 2000 the company stopped manufacturing anchor sleeves and now appears to be out of business, renamed, or purchased by another company.  When Portland Bolt sees a specification asking for a Sinco plastic anchor sleeve we know that this is an outdated requirement and we immediately substitute Wilson Anchor Bolt Sleeves or a Contec Sleeve, since Sinco branded sleeves are no longer manufactured or available.

Unfortunately, Portland Bolt does not employ engineers and due to liability issues, we are not in a position to make recommendations with regard to size, grade, or the design of anchor bolts for specific applications. Welded pipe sleeve anchor bolt assemblies are job specific and are designed and detailed by an engineer for a specific purpose. Portland Bolt can manufacture the assembly per a project’s drawings and specifications, once they have been engineered.

No. Both Contec and Wilson warn against use of plastic sleeves with high temperature environments, like an oven. Conversely, extreme low temperatures could be problematic as well. See the technical specifications for Vicat Softening Point and the Brittleness Temperature for both Wilson and Contec anchor sleeves.

Wilson Anchor Sleeves are used with one diameter of anchor bolt and all sizes are colored black. Contec Anchor Bolt Sleeves are used with at least two different diameters of anchor bolts and in some cases three. Each size of Contec anchor sleeve is easily identifiable by different colors for each size. Contec Anchor Bolt Sleeves often must be cut on each end in order to be used with the diameter of anchor bolt being set into concrete. Other than color difference and the fact that Contec sleeves can be used with multiple diameters of bolts, there are virtually no differences between the two sleeve brands. See this FAQ for more information.

No. Chemical and strength documentation are not available for the high-density polyethylene that anchor sleeves are made from.

Large quantities of large plastic anchor sleeves in general may need to be special ordered and may have a longer lead time associated with them. This is especially true for plastic anchor bolt sleeves for use with anchor bolts roughly 2-1/4” in diameter and up. Custom plastic anchor sleeves can also be made given enough time, depending the the brand of sleeve.  Often, it is easiest to use a larger or different plastic sleeve size with an anchor bolt if a different sleeve size is required.  Portland Bolt does stock a comprehensive line of sleeves through 3” diameter, so feel free to contact Kyle and he will be happy to check inventory for you.

Although plastic anchor bolt sleeves are extremely light they are even more extremely voluminous. The space they take up is so great that shipping companies will price the shipping cost not by the actual weight, but instead by the dimensional weight of the space taken up by the sleeves. This dimensional weight can be so large that air shipping large amounts of sleeves can be highly prohibitive.

No. All of the anchor sleeves that are commonly available in the United States are sized for imperial dimensioned fasteners. An easy solution is to soft convert the metric size desired to the closest imperial size available and cut away material on the anchor sleeve using a knife. Often imperial and metric diameter material is very close in size, if not identical.