Driveway Marker

[jgayman]

I use the 5/16" fiberglass rods from Lowes. $2.00 each, last forever. I pound them in with a length of 1/2 iron pipe with a cap on the end. place point of rod on ground, slide pipe over the top. 4 whacks, done.

DITTO all the way! A side benefit of the 1/2" iron pipe is mine is 1-foot shorter than my fiberglass rods so all I do is pound them in until the pipe touches the dirt and they are exactly 1-foot in the ground.

 

[jgayman]

I have fond this site and their products are top notch and chapter then what I can get locally.

https://discountsnowstakes.com/

That $57 (with shipping) marker insertion tool was tempting.... NOT.

 

[jgayman]

Something to mow around or hit with the mower. Don't want them.

I only put mine in for winter. I have a gravel driveway and the markers not only tell me where the edges are but also make it easier to keep the gravel out of the lawn.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

The snow blowing company I drive for here in Ottawa has always uesd rebar, along with every other company around here. Last year the city brought in a regulation that they couldn't use rebar any more as it was too costly on repairs when it gets tangled up in the blowers. Now they use the fiberglass ones. I actually like them better as they will pop back up after being hit.

 

[lungdoc]

My father in law plowing with a loader in the past always used rebar. Still using a few but mostly switched to 2x2 stakes as using a blower and penalty for sucking a stake/marker into the blower is just too high with rebar. With plowing you can hit markers so being able to bend straight is a nice feature, with blower only hit rarely but if you do you want blower to be able to survive the hit.

 

[PILOON]

I in fact just last week installed a few rebar markers to mark some boulders that get totally hidden after blowing snow storms.
As said earlier I slipped some lengths of blue 1" poly pipe over the rebar as well as applied 3" strips of reflective tape around the top section.

You tend to resort to these measures only after you damage your equipment however.
My Bad! Well I did learn my lesson.

 

[chim]

I never have trouble knowing where the paved main driveway is. We do have a second gravel driveway that goes to the shed. It curves through the front yard, and a number of times I plowed snow and when things melted a little discovered it wasn't where I thought it was. A couple years ago I started using the orange FG rods with reflective tape. Between the last mowing and first snow they get tapped in and then get pulled out for the first mowing in the Spring.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

I like the idea of the orange pex over the top of the rebar. Just so happens coming up i am going to have some. i will use it in the spots that you have to stay away from. Issue I have found is you may know where your driveway is but someone else won't. So, if you can't plow or your equipment breaks down...... you end up with a mess if someone else does it. Tried the fiberglass and wood stakes. We have clay with rocks. This year with little rain the clay is real... hard, so if the top doesn't splinter, pounding it in, once you hit a rock it will, so you can only get one year. Wood great but if you hit them they break, then you can't find them in the snow and they don't like going through the blower, also can't bend back. With the rebar, if you run over it with the blower it just bends over out of your way, works so long as remember to go back and fold up. Good comments Steve

 

[varmint]

I drive in lengths of 3/8" rebar, about 3' long or so, and slide pieces of 1/2 white PVC pipe over them. I scrounged some reflective stickers from a State Farm agent, which I put around the top of the PVC pipe. Hitting them causes no harm, other than a bent piece of rebar. They've held up for 6-7 years so far.

 

[cointoss]

I use the plastic electric fence posts that you find and most farm stores and then just slip a red laundry detergent bottle over the top. White out conditions, deep snow and wind that you get in the U.P. of Michigan are common and with a long drive it is easier to see night and day.

 

[bigtiller]

I don't use rebar any more because it is too hard to pull out in the spring. Even if it is only driven in 12 inches, the rough edges that make it so great in concrete make it hold just as well in soil.

Now, I drive a tapered metal dowel about 8 inches into the ground forming a starter hole, remove it, and push a fiberglass driveway marker in the hole.

 

[aczlan]

I just use the 48" fiberglass stakes and drive them with a 36" piece of 1/2 black iron pipe that has a pipe cap on one end. Works well for me.

Aaron Z

 

[Rustyferrious]

Plower's in the North East US: Ocean State Job Lot has the 4' fiberglass rods, 6 for $6, 5' rods and thicker rods slightly more. Get 'em while you can.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I am like the other retired guy said in a post on page 2....
No one is here but me and being retired so I decide when I do or don't need to go anywhere.. Mostly don't...

However my driveway is a problem to back into or out of even after having done it 8000 or more times.. There are 3 curves involved here..
At a garage sale I got a whole bunch of those 7/16" or so diameter yellow electric fence posts for cheap.. Some needed straitened out a little. No problem there.

They are hard to drive in on a good day here as this place is a rock pile.. Once in location I get a 96 cent 2" diameter solar light and slip over the top, and a short length of orange surveyors ribbon tied under the light..

On a cold rainy night when it is dark as the inside of a cow, it is a lot easier to back into a parking spot in the drive..

Good luck

 

[jcummins]

I am like the other retired guy said in a post on page 2....
No one is here but me and being retired so I decide when I do or don't need to go anywhere.. Mostly don't...

However my driveway is a problem to back into or out of even after having done it 8000 or more times.. There are 3 curves involved here..
At a garage sale I got a whole bunch of those 7/16" or so diameter yellow electric fence posts for cheap.. Some needed straitened out a little. No problem there.

They are hard to drive in on a good day here as this place is a rock pile.. Once in location I get a 96 cent 2" diameter solar light and slip over the top, and a short length of orange surveyors ribbon tied under the light..

On a cold rainy night when it is dark as the inside of a cow, it is a lot easier to back into a parking spot in the drive..

Good luck

How many of the 96 cent solar lights have gone bad?

 

[ttriff]

I make mine.......

Poles are chain-link fence top rail cut in half, so ~5'3" tall
Pour a bag of SackCrete into a plastic kitty litter pail,
Wipe the pole with solvent to remove any machine oil and inset the pipe in the pail
After the concrete cures wrap the pole with reflective tape
Place a cheap solar powered lawn light in the top of the pole.

Easily portable if left in the plastic bucket
These are nice and tall, won't blow over in the highest winds (we're measured an occasional 110mph burst)

 

[bigtiller]

I did something similar with some leftover concrete. I filled a 5 gallon bucket about 1/3 full, let it harden, dumped it out and drilled a 5/8 hole through it in the center. Now, if one of my other stakes get knocked over after the ground has frozen, i can replace it easily.

 

[Katahdin]

I have a tendency to get over aggressive with my plowing, with the end result being more gravel on my lawn to clean up in spring. I've found the markers do help me keep the gravel contained more to the driveway and less on the lawn. I will try using rebar this year.

 

[FatTire]

Our driveway curves through rocks, and along with drifting, it's difficult to manage without some marking. I used steel T-posts, but over time discovered too many ways they become weapon-like. Bent over by a errant trailer or plow blade, they get buried in the snow at an angle and look like they're going to impale something, or someone. So this year I am switching over to the commercial fiberglass markers, 5 ft. Doing the driveway in orange, ski trails in blue. Found the internet price, with shipping, was about 40% of the best local price. I need quite a few so I decided to screw our local merchants.

BTW- We've removed a lot of rock withing 5 feet of the driveway, most of what's left are not gonna move without major excavation. And then I'd have big holes to fill.