Patent ID: 8240097

Claim:
A post anchoring foot for use in securing a post to a surface, said foot comprising: a body dimensioned to snugly receive a portion of the post, said body including a generally horizontally extending base portion and a generally upstanding side wall configured to circumscribe the received portion of the post, said base portion and said side wall cooperatively presenting a substantially laterally enclosed post-receiving area, said base portion defining a lowermost surface-engaging anchoring face, said base portion defining an elevated supporting face configured to engage an end of the received portion of the post, said supporting face being disposed above said anchoring face, said base portion defining a plurality of anchor-receiving apertures extending therethrough, each aperture being configured to selectively receive an anchor therein to securely couple the foot to the surface, said side wall presenting a laterally inner post-engaging face and an opposite laterally outer face, said side wall defining a fastener-receiving hole extending therethrough between the inner and outer faces, with the hole being disposed above the supporting face, said hole being configured to selectively receive a fastener therein to securely couple the foot to the post, said anchoring face comprising a plurality of discrete surface-engaging stand elements such that the anchoring face is discontinuous about a laterally outer periphery of the base portion, said side wall comprising a plurality of side wall portions, each side wall portion corresponding to a side of the portion of the post to be received in the post-receiving area, said base portion presenting a substantially polygonal laterally outer periphery, one of said plurality of discrete surface-engaging stand elements being disposed adjacent a corner of the laterally outer periphery of the base portion, said body including a liquid drain area defined between the anchoring face and the support face, said outer face of each side wall portion defining a plurality of drain openings therein, with each drain opening extending upwardly from the anchoring face such that the liquid drain area is in fluid communication with the environment via the drain opening, said supporting face intersecting a plurality of drain holes defined by the base portion of the body and extending therethrough, with each drain hole being disposed adjacent a corner of the laterally outer periphery of the supporting face such that the post-receiving area is in fluid communication with the liquid drain area, each of said corner-disposed surface-engaging stand elements defining a substantially hollow space in fluid communication with a respective one of the corner-disposed drain holes such that each drain hole is in fluid communication with the environment via a drain opening.