Driveway markers

[Ford850]

What brand? They sound pretty decent.

I'm up here in Colorado, so we get more UV in 1 winter than most of you get in a year or 3. The whole length of the rods gets fuzzy from the glass fibers as the epoxy gets destroyed from the UV. It's the UV causing my issues, not mechanical damage splintering the rods.

Looking at Lowes and HD sites, I'd say mine were Everbilt or Hillman brand. Although they all look similar in that style and when I but them they are in bulk bins or tubes, preferably on sale. I'd say you're right about the UV difference too. You might try to by new ones, and put a coat of good orange paint on them from the start to protect form UV longer. I space mine out as far as I can, just enough for me to follow the contour of the long drive, and only put them on one side. I thin plow pushing snow to the opposite side every time so the stakes don't get much abuse. Honestly, I figured I'd be replacing a few each year and they would have all been replaced with new by now, but I haven't damaged any yet. The reflective tape is definitely wearing out though.

 

[grsthegreat]

i also use a hammer drill bit and my cordless drill when setting my 50+ winter edge markers up every year. takes about 20 minutes to knock out. I use the fiberglass rods myself.

 

[aczlan]

Looking at Lowes and HD sites, I'd say mine were Everbilt or Hillman brand. Although they all look similar in that style and when I but them they are in bulk bins or tubes, preferably on sale. I'd say you're right about the UV difference too. You might try to by new ones, and put a coat of good orange paint on them from the start to protect form UV longer. I space mine out as far as I can, just enough for me to follow the contour of the long drive, and only put them on one side. I thin plow pushing snow to the opposite side every time so the stakes don't get much abuse. Honestly, I figured I'd be replacing a few each year and they would have all been replaced with new by now, but I haven't damaged any yet. The reflective tape is definitely wearing out though.

I was just going to suggest that, either a bright color, or clear coat.
Perhaps get a half gallon of paint and use a piece of 1.5" PVC (with a cap on one end) that is a few inches shorter than the sticks, that way they can get completely covered, then you can take them out and let them dry (resting on a couple of pieces of angle iron?).

Aaron Z

 

[RjCorazza]

Lots of great ideas...
I use fiberglass rods. I drive a landscape spike (giant nail) into the ground, remove the spike, and drop the rod in the hole.

 

[LouNY]

Lots of great ideas...
I use fiberglass rods. I drive a landscape spike (giant nail) into the ground, remove the spike, and drop the rod in the hole.

I use the spring loaded fiberglass similar to these, and I also use a large railroad tie spike landscape spike to pre make the hole;
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200636276_200636276
I like the spring loaded ones as snow plowing and deer don't usually knock them down.
Usually I will put a couple on both ends of my culverts to mark them so I can plow close without running over the ends.

 

[DKCDKC]

I have a mile long gravel drive. Part of it is clearly defined by trees, etc. But I mark other sections with about 40 6 ft. pieces of 1/2 pvc I was given by a plumber who hunts my property. I dipped the top foot of each piece in a day-glo pink paint - repeated as needed, and put up in early December before the ground freezes here. I have rocky ground in places but use an old piece of round bar steel that I drive into the ground to make a hole when needed. Never had any real problems. I put the pegs exactly 2 feet to the right of the edge of my driveway and that has worked for years through some super heavy snows.

 

[check]

I have trees hanging over the edge of my driveway. Just hang reflective tape on the end of the branches.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I use over 100 stakes a season. I order them from Discount Snow Stakes and use their Pro Line 5/16" Orange 6 foot stakes. I have found these to be the best for me. They last a long tome, don't get splintery unless I run over them, and have good big reflectors. I order about 20 or 25 a year to replace the ones I break and rotate out the oldest ones. I punch a hole in our bony ground with a sharpened piece of rebar and a 3 lb hammer then just drop the stake in. I used to cut and sharpen saplings but not any more.

Discount Snow Stakes Discount Snow Stakes | Driveway Markers | Reflective Stakes Discount Driveway Markers

gg

 

[cointoss]

Here in the U.P of Michigan the road crew used to use strait saplings cut from the woods. Commonly called "Upper sticks" and they would just hammer some rebar in a few inches and pull back out and stick the sapling in. And for night viewing, a little reflector tape and orange survey tape worked well.
I use tomato stakes with survey tape and old red Tide plastic bottles pushed over the top for my drive.

 

[PILOON]

I use rebar scraps for my poles and slip short lengths of blue poly pipe for visibility.
To hold the blue poly onto the rebar I wedge tapered wood to make a tight fit.

Blue shows up very well and I had odd lengths left over from water pump installations.

One advantage of rebar is you can straighten the rad should you snag it.
Naturally you want to install your markers B4 the ground freezes.

 

[laundryboy]

2 foot pieces of rebar hammered into the ground with pvc slipped over the end.

 

[WALT]

I just came across this thread having put up my markers for the winter last week. I set 70 to 80 to mark my driveway & sidewalk.
I was surprised that few here still use wood stakes. Being in a area with numerous sawmills, I bought 1" x 1" x 4' oak stakes sawn and pointed,
75 @ $47.25 last fall. In the past, I have sawn them out of scrap oak, and then freehanded a wedge base on the table saw.
As they are rough sawn, I clean them up and then paint them the top 12".
By trial and error, I found that applying a flat white base coat first, drying, then the finish coat works good. I use an orange gloss enamel.
Without the white base coat, the orange paint would absorb into the wood, showing poorly.

I also have found that a 3/4" x 24" masonary drill bit with a 1/2" cordless drill works good to drill your stake hole, unless you hit a large stone.
If you do, I drill another hole until I can bore 6" into the ground, then pound the stake in. I get 5+ years out of the stakes.
In the spring, I wire brush and wash off the dirt, allow to dry, and store them in a barrel for next year.

Live Free or Die
WALT

 

[Cougsfan]

2 foot pieces of rebar hammered into the ground with pvc slipped over the end.

We have done the same thing on our 3 miles of twisty private road. Except we use 3' of #5 rebar with one foot sticking out of the ground about 100' apart (a little further apart sometimes on straight stretches). In the summer we put 1' long pieces of 3/4" pvc over the rebar, and replace them with 4' long PVC pieces in the winter. Sometimes even they get buried in snow, but by then the road is fairly identifiable by the piles of snow along side the road. We put a 4" wide strip of reflective tape at the top of each chunk of PVC, both winter and summer pieces (which helps in dense fog at night). We have been using the same poles for 4 years now and they have held up fine and the whole system works pretty good. Much, much better than the fiberglass poles we tried previous to that which constantly fell over. They have been hit by vehicles a few times but can usually bent back straight.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Running into rebar with my HD Sierra would probably do about six thousand dollars damage!

 

[grsthegreat]

ya...im leery of rebar anywhere. i once spun a piece inside my pto rear snowblower and had to use a cutting torch to remove it. I could just imagine running over a piece of it if someone or something pulled the pvc off of it. But, if it works for you...go for it. I never fault anybody for doing something im afraid of trying.

 

[JerryK]

I cut old T posts to a boot 2' length and drive them a little into the ground. Then slip a boot a 2-1/2' [ or so ] hunk of 1-1/2" electrical PVC over it, top'd with a genuine 1-1/2" PVC cap. Wrap a layer of reflective tape just below the cap, and she shows up real good. Some of them have holes drilled in the caps with solar lights stuck down inside them. In the winter, because of our snow depth, I pound in 5-1/2' T posts with a couple bands repainted each fall with Hi-viz orange paint. And tie some orange marking tape on here and there to move a little in the wind. Helps me a little to remember where the drive is, but mostly for delivery trucks to stay up on the hump of the drive. A boot the same time, I put the Hi-viz bands on my here and there line posts and corner posts before deer season to mark my land.

 

[Dusty]

At my old house, I used a 1' length of 1/2" pvc pipe and solvent welded on a male threaded coupling. Drove that into the ground level with the grass and then I would screw a 4' length of pvc pipe with a female coupling on the end onto that. After the first year, I learned that I had to put a cap on top of the pvc pipes, to keep the rain out of them. On a couple, they filled with water, and froze and cracked. I dipped the tops of the pvc pipes in orange paint for visibility. In the spring, I would unscrew the upper pvc pipe and put it away for next year. I left that snow stake "system" for the new owner when I sold the property. Now, I use fiberglass stakes.

 

[PILOON]

For my markers I had recuperated lengths of REBAR that I drove in all about 4 ft long.
Then slid 16 inch pieces of blue Poly B water pipe onto the top ends, the blue Poly B provided good contrast and visibility against white snow.
Even wrapped strips of reflective tape for night tome plowing.
Oh, and I leave them there all year round.

This year I've heard that the current contractor demands clients mark the drives very well especially all obstructions.
I gather he has had some legal problems last year.
He told me that he sent one potential client packing due to his excessive demands.
Around here no contractor includes sanding as that would be very difficult to meet picky clients expectations.

I used to sand on the rare occasion but never as a contract condition.
LOL, mainly that I not get stuck.

Those were back in the 'good old days'.
Heck my sand was free as the city manager told me to help myself.

 

[RobS]

I made a mini-post pounder to put fiberglass sticks in. Just a length of iron pipe a bit larger diameter than the stakes and a threaded on cap at one end. Our soil was favorable for this approach, wouldn't work with a lot of rock. I put out about a hundred markers pretty quickly.

 

[aczlan]

I made a mini-post pounder to put fiberglass sticks in. Just a length of iron pipe a bit larger diameter than the stakes and a threaded on cap at one end. Our soil was favorable for this approach, wouldn't work with a lot of rock. I put out about a hundred markers pretty quickly.

I did that, ended up blowing out the end of the cap (schedule 40 black iron pipe cap from Lowes), had to replace it with a schedule 80 cap.

Aaron Z