treating telephone poles

[donais]

what should i use to treat them( i live in california)?? so im probably limited there. Im going to put lights on them for my arena, what type would you use???and how high?? jon

 

[sunspot]

Can you buy them already treated? There is a wood pole plant near my house. It now smells like a mothball factory what with the new laws on chemicals. Every now and then, they haul out a load of Creosote poles. Can you buy them in california?

 

[tallyho8]

If you are using used telephone poles then they are probably already treated. If you have some kind of new post that is not treated, there is no proper DIY method of treatment.
It depends on what kind of lights you are using on how high they should be. I have some 400 watt hps lights that are 20' high with the poles 6' in the ground and I have a 1000w hps also that is 20' high but it would work much better if it were 30' high.

With the increasing energy costs I would not consider any lights except hps or metal halide.

 

[donais]

im a cable guy and we use the poles in the training yard they are un treated. the poles are in sleeves in the ground and bolted in like a christmas tree stand, but 6 feet deep. i got 7 of them 4- 40 foot 1- 30 foot and 2- 22 foot poles.so ive got the pole to go as high as i need. Are the hps lights pricey and where and how many for a 65 foot round pen, we are gonna do it first then the arena. i was thinking of 3 ploes for the pen to cancel out shadows, but would two work almost as well??

 

[Soundguy]

Assuming you can get the stuff in the peoples republik of kalifornia.. I'd treat the ground area with copper napthenate. or paint with fence paint.. you can get the stuff in brown / black.. or you can use black asphalt paint.

The black asphalt paint is good stuff.. cheap and bugs and mold and rot don't like it.

soundguy

 

[donais]

thanks soundguy, you know its sad that cali is the way it is if only we could break off san fran and some of the northern counties and send them out to sea..the wife wont let me transfer to oklahoma.. ill try finding the copper ...

 

[RWolf]

Outdoor enamel paint. Apply thick and let dry. Apply to about 1 foot above ground and don't forget base of pole. It's cheap and will last a long time.

 

[flusher]

what should i use to treat them( i live in california)?? so im probably limited there. Im going to put lights on them for my arena, what type would you use???and how high?? jon

I built a gate and fence for my Japanese garden a few months ago.

The gate posts are redwood and the fence posts are pressure treated 4x4s. The redwood has natural resistance to rot and the PT posts are made rot resistant with chemicals. Since I'm a belt and suspenders type I used the green paint-on copper stuff on the buried parts of the posts, let it dry for a few days. Then I sprayed several coats of black auto undercoating on the buried part, let it dry and set the post.

 

[donais]

well i got one in today i ended up using asphalt roof stuff i had in a shed... tip of the day..... i used a piece of old shag carpet as a paintbrush.... worked perfect.. one ploe in 5 feet deep. now i need to find the lights...

 

[Soundguy]

remember to get some pics.

soundguy

 

[N80]

I have never seen an untreated telephone pole in my life and I used to work summers on a line crew. Maybe it was cheaper to buy them untreated since you guys were just practicing with them. However, where I worked they would have bought treated poles, practiced with them, and then used them for real.

I just completed a tractor shed using 4x6 PT posts. Some folks recommended additional treatment for termite and rot protection but in my 4 summers of putting telephone poles in, we just stuck them in a hole without any additional treatment. That was 20 years ago and I think they're all still there, well, except the ones people crashed their cars into.

 

[donais]

i work for the cable company we dont own or set any poles the phone co and us rent space on power. they wanted the untreated cause they come out so often, and the guy cuts them up and burns them unless i can talk him into giving them to me.. i wish i could find my camera when i had the poles on the 16 foot trailer. thats right 40 foot poles, i got creative with the welder. it looked like a gooseneck car hauler. i will get a pick of the pole set, not real exciting now shoulda thought of that when i was putting it in.

 

[N80]

Wow. That's a nice source of 'lumber'. I'd have loved to have had those when I was building my shed.

When I was discussing my shed someone recommended using Tim-Bor. It is a termite treatment. I have a log cabin that is treated with it and the cabin has a lifetime warranty on termite damage. Not sure if Tim-Bor is okay in California. It probably is though because I think the primary ingredient is simple borax.

 

[studor]

The ones I have seen were all treated -- even though some did not look like it they did not rot after lying on the ground for several years in my pasture. Old timers used to soak fenceposts in used motor oil which made them last a long, long time (probably not legal in California). Timbor works to keep bugs from chewing on wood but won't stop ground contact rot ( it is mostly Borax and will leech out fairly quickly underground). Creosote or tar based products are probably your best bet and are probably bad for something or other. I have a stock of old treated telephone posts that I use whenever I need to stick something in the ground -- no sign of deterioration after 5+ years.

 

[Soundguy]

. Old timers used to soak fenceposts in used motor oil which made them last a long, long time (probably not legal in California).

"Probably" not legal ANYWHERE in the US.. or shouldn't be....

soundguy

 

[studor]

Soundguy
You are right -- it should be illegal everywhere not just the U.S-- but is it better to do this???
"Currently, more than half of the used oil collected in California is shipped out of state or offshore to be burned as fuel, resulting in toxic air pollution (such as phosphates, sulfur, and heavy metals including zinc, cadmium, copper, lead and benzene) and CO2 being released into the atmosphere. California's strict air emissions standards do not allow the burning of used oil."

Sorry if you took offense

 

[N80]

Wait a minute, doesn't oil come out of the ground in the first place? Seems like putting it back in is so eco-poetic.

I'm kidding folks, don't sic the green police on me.

 

[Egon]

Now that may just depend on the mineral properties on the crude and/or refined oil.

 

[studor]

By the way if you use the copper, cats and dogs won't use them as marking poles -- kinda a side benefit.

 

[tallyho8]

im a cable guy and we use the poles in the training yard they are un treated. the poles are in sleeves in the ground and bolted in like a christmas tree stand, but 6 feet deep. i got 7 of them 4- 40 foot 1- 30 foot and 2- 22 foot poles.so ive got the pole to go as high as i need. Are the hps lights pricey and where and how many for a 65 foot round pen, we are gonna do it first then the arena. i was thinking of 3 ploes for the pen to cancel out shadows, but would two work almost as well??

I would only use 2 in a 65' round pen. You can probably find 2 400W HPS spotlights on ebay pretty reasonable. Your 22' poles set 5' deep should provide a pretty bright light. These lights usually sell for $200 to $350 and cost a little more than halogen lights but make up for the price in energy savings and long bulb life.

I got a pretty good deal on 2 of them a while back that I was going to put on a pole in the corner of my arena, but the pole is so small it probably can't support these 2 lights and I may sell them and get 1 1000w hps light instead.