clothesline

**pop goes the weasel** · 07-10-2009, 11:48 AM

I'm hoping someone can give me some ideas. We have put my clothesline poles up for the last three years. Every year they end up pulling in. We have no room for guide wires so we cemented them in. It doesn't seem to matter how much cement or how deep we put them in they pull loose. This year dh even took a cement block and put it tight against the pole in the ground and they still came loose. I would lilke to hang my clothes out but can't. My mother had the same poles ever since I was a kid and they are still standing. I don't know what my dad did but he even hung deer on them in hunting season to skin them and they didn't move. Any ideas?

**momof2joys** · 07-10-2009, 12:00 PM

Are you taking them down every year??? Or just have tried moving them the last 3 years to get them to stay??

I would try putting cement inside the pole to help streghten it, I would also try putting sand in the hole where you want to put the poles then fill cement!

Can you attach one side to the house or back of the garage?? That might help from pulling in!! Try different poles or different lines, hope some of this helps!!!

**fixer** · 07-10-2009, 12:06 PM

The weight of wet clothes on a clothesline is surprisingly heavy. I made ours from six by six posts forty inches in the ground. I also concreted them. Your soil type my have a lot to do with your posts moving. I would try to get them as deep as possible then use concrete. My posts are fine but my clothesline keeps stretching and sagging.

**semo_mom** · 07-10-2009, 12:33 PM

We had the same problem and my hubby put angled braces on the inside of each pole (about half way up to the ground) and this stopped it from pulling in more.

We had to move the poles last year and he placed them in the ground facing out a bit, so this time when they pulled in, they were in the correct position.

**Grainlady** · 07-10-2009, 12:48 PM

1. Reset your posts so they are closer together and you HAVE room for guide wires to help pull them back.

2. Add an extra pole in the middle to help reduce the stress. My mother had clothesline props on her long lines to help keep lines up and reduce the stress (she had 8 kids and LOTS of laundry). http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VC6PK6/...l_1zw4w0rr0j_b

3. Replace the T-post lines with umbrella-type clothes line/s. I have mine placed just off a small patio on the side yard so I never have to get my feet wet walking through wet grass to hang clothes out, because I can stay on the patio. We had one placed next to a sidewalk near our deck where we lived before. In both places we could remove the umbrella clothes lines and put a real umbrella in them for extra shaded seating or a shaded place to serve food when we had friends or family over for a cook-out.