Driveway markers

[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