Installing a washing line pole

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So the previous owners had a washing line that was attached to the wall at one end and the garden shed at the other. Probably explains why the shed is leaning forwards by about 3°

Anyway the hook in the shed fell out, taking the barge board with it. I’ve decided to order a new pole and install it into the ground (clay soil).

So 2500mm long pole, 45x45 (it’s square). I’m ordering a post digger to make 150x150x500 hole.

Will postcrete suffice? It’s not a rotary washing line.

Is it worth lining the hole with a plastic bag or something to stop the water escaping into the soil?

Is making some basic formwork or shuttering to have a nice square shape at the top just OTT?
 
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45*45... is that steel? If so, no problem (paint on some red oxide/zinc 182) - if it's timber then you need something chunkier. My way of thinking, the rougher your hole the better - if you do shuttering then the edges will be smooth(ish) and less friction to stay in the ground when the weight of wet washing is trying to pull it over.

Nozzle
 
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It is long gone now [1], but I am on clay - one end of line on an brick out building, other end on a steel post well concreted into the ground. The post would gradually lean more and more due to the clay. I solved the lean, by hammering a 4 foot scaffold pole in the ground, then welding the post to that before sledge hammering the whole thing even deeper.

[1] I then got fed up of the washing lines breaking, so decided a more permanent solution was needed. I installed a pulley under my eaves at the back of the house, inside a vertical plastic soil pipe, with a massive counterweight on the end of a ss rope over the pulley, running up and down inside the pipe. Far end terminates on a scaffold pole 40 away at end of back garden. Between those two points is a 20m (20m x 2) loop of ss wire rope, running on two pulleys. That allows you to load/unload all the washing up from one place and just push the loop of wire plush washing along.

The above is pulled up way out of reach by the counterweight, so I use a manual winch to pull the end nearest the house down. High up in the air in the breeze, clothes dry very quickly. All done in stainless steel, so should last forever.
 
You need a diagonal support brace.
that will be good to trip over

So the previous owners had a washing line that was attached to the wall at one end and the garden shed at the other. Probably explains why the shed is leaning forwards by about 3°

Anyway the hook in the shed fell out, taking the barge board with it. I’ve decided to order a new pole and install it into the ground (clay soil).

So 2500mm long pole, 45x45 (it’s square). I’m ordering a post digger to make 150x150x500 hole.

Will postcrete suffice? It’s not a rotary washing line.

Is it worth lining the hole with a plastic bag or something to stop the water escaping into the soil?

Is making some basic formwork or shuttering to have a nice square shape at the top just OTT?

I would certainly make the hole wider than 150mm in the perpendicular direction the the direction of the line so the concrete has more earth to push against 9 to 12 inches would be more normal.

and no you don't need to line the hole with anything,

And yes a little bit shuttering around the top (2 inches deep) would give a nicer finish.
 
45*45... is that steel? If so, no problem (paint on some red oxide/zinc 182)
Yes. Galvanised and powder coated black. The shuttering was really for the top of the concrete to give a nice square finish. I’ll leave out the bag.

You need a diagonal support brace.
What do I brace it to?

Get these:
I saw those pulleys on a different website. But SWMBO wanted a retractable washing line.

The post would gradually lean more and more due to the clay..
Yes that was one of my concerns. Hence checking about depth. I’ve seen all washing poles like mine either bent over time or just lean due to soil.

I couldn’t weld for toffee when I was 12 and had the equipment at school so doubt I’d fare any better now. Could I install say a 1m length of steel horizontally at the base of the round hole? Would the postcrete happily attach itself to both the horizontal pole and the washing pole to make it all one unit?
 
I couldn’t weld for toffee when I was 12 and had the equipment at school so doubt I’d fare any better now. Could I install say a 1m length of steel horizontally at the base of the round hole? Would the postcrete happily attach itself to both the horizontal pole and the washing pole to make it all one unit?

Probably not. Maybe if you could get a pole which would slide inside your pole, then hammer that deep into the clay, without need to weld it, it would work.
 
I couldn’t weld for toffee when I was 12 and had the equipment at school so doubt I’d fare any better now. Could I install say a 1m length of steel horizontally at the base of the round hole? Would the postcrete happily attach itself to both the horizontal pole and the washing pole to make it all one unit?

when holes fail and posts start to lean the movement is at the top of the hole. if you are worried about lean, then at the top of the hole lay a piece of concrete edging (900x200x50) just under the surface so as the concrete and post will push against it. that will never move sideways through the ground.
 
What do I brace it to?

The ground, in line with the angle of pull.

You can use one on the rope side, a piece of wood or metal, in compression

IMG_2346-366x366.jpg


Or you can use one on the far side, which can be a guy line, usually pegged to the ground but can be anchored to a heavy object.

IMG_20200111_113707578_HDR-366x366.jpg
in tension

If your vision is poor and you might trip over it, utility companies often slip a piece of yellow tube over it. But if you place the pole next to your shed, you can place the brace or cable along the side of the shed, where it will not be in the way.

If you a fixing a screw-eye to your house, put it in the side wall, not the end, so that pull will not be end on, which will tend to pull it out.

Set it several bricks from the corner so it does not loosen the brick.
 

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