Ideas for setting shed poles??

[rbarshaw]

The snow will be here in Ontario in only a matter of days, and the pressure is on to get my sawmill shed completed.  I have decided to use old hydro poles to support the structure.  I had every intention of putting the poles 4 feet into the ground; however, mother nature has other plans for me.  I could only get 2 out of the 8 poles my desired depth.

Basically I have 2 corner posts in the ground at the back and need to get the others in VERY soon.  My problem is that for the other 6 poles I can only get down 1.5 feet at the most before I am hitting bedrock.  I'm not sure what  I should do to make sure the rest of the poles don't kick out and stay in place.

I was thinking of drilling a piece of rebar about 6 inches into the bedrock then drilling another 6 inches or so into the pole.   Set the pole on the rebar and brace the pole until the beam is in place and the rest of the building is in place.

Does any of this make sense?  I'm open to any ideas or criticism to better my ideas...  Any input would be appreciated...

Epoxy the rebar to the bedrock then epoxy the pole to the rebar, it won't move ever. Or epoxy a threaded rod to bedrock then make an angle iron pocket to bolt down and set the post in it and bolt the post to the steel, this would make it replaceable.

[laffs]

hammer drill holes in bedrock for rebar then form it up to about 3 ft for cement put your posts on top of the cement. same thing that isnt bedrock but go below frostline in your area might be 5 6 ft then put styrofoam around the cement so the frost wont grab the cement. but put the posts on top so if they ever rot get broke  you dont have to get them out of the cement

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Northwoods

Wilth all due respect, your referring to the well drilling rig idea as crazy, may not be as crazy as you may think. I lived in the Apalachaian mountains back in NJ which was almost solid rock any time you went to dig for anything. In my area, putting a basement in almost always required drilling holes and setting explosives to break up the rock. A friend of mine owned a well drilling company and I worked for him part time on the side. At one time it was a pretty good business to be in, but with housing starts way down and more areas getting public water service, it is not the cash cow it used to be. It was not uncommon for him to have to send crews as far a 8 states away to get work and they would stay there for a few weeks at a time.

We were contracted many times to drill holes 3 to 4 feet down for fence post installations for horse corrals and pole barn style buildings. He would charge $20 a hole and we could drill on average 10 to 15 and hour. Would just leave the tower up and move down the line every 8 to 10 feet drilling the holes. At $20 a hole he was making between $200 to $300 an hour, which was a lot better than leaving the machine sit if he had no other jobs lined up for the day. His minimum charge was $300 per job. He actually got quite a few jobs after 9/11 drilling holes in front of office buildings and state and federal buildings for concrete filled metal poles for security reasons

Also you made mention that it is rediculous to drill a hole in rock just to insert a post and fill it in with concrete. It is not just an issue of having a stable base as a footing, it is just as much an issue of securing the building to the land. In many areas of the country, foundations and footing are subject to building department inspections and if they are not the proper depth or diameter you will not pass the inspection. Some areas also require the concrete to be tested and certified before the pour. Putting the posts in a hole with concrete satifies the building department regulations and also insures that a strong wind, such as a huricane, which is fairly common on the east coast will not lift your building and carry it away.

When you have to make the monthly payment on a half million dollar machine and the building industry is as slow as it is for the past few years, you have to get pretty creative and find ways to make the monthly payments or you can just sit back and watch the repo man come and drive it away.

[northwoods1]

When you have to make the monthly payment on a half million dollar machine and the building industry is as slow as it is for the past few years, you have to get pretty creative and find ways to make the monthly payments or you can just sit back and watch the repo man come and drive it away.

Busy beaver no offense intended

All I know about drilling wells is from having a neighbor that has been doing it for 20 years, and having had 3 drilled wells done on my properties over the years by 2 different local drillers one last summer at my farm. Here the way it works is no one comes out for less than 50 ft of drilling. I can see how your well driller friend may have been able to do it for a minimum charge.... but $300 would not be nearly enough for a driller to move and set up a rig like that it is more like $2000 for the average job and they can do more than one of those in a day if things go OK.

I beleive the best way to anchor those posts with the bedrock being so close to the surface would be to pour a concrete footing which the post will set on, but.... the footing has to be anchored to the bedrock and and epoxy like has been mentioned would be a very good way. A knowledgeable concrete contractor would most likely recommend the same thing.

[Kevin]

You can also buy rock mounts for poles or  build a crib below grade.

[Qweaver]

I would never concrete a wood post in it will rot off in no time. It might be expedient but that is all. If your gonna pour concrete just set the post on the pad do not set it in the concrete.

I don't mean to be rude but this is simply not true with treated posts.  I've pulled many posts that have been concreted in and in every case the posts were as sound as the day they were put in.  Hurricane Ike knocked down my rent house in south Texas in 2009 and when I pulled the posts they were still perfect where the concrete surrounded them.  Those posts were put in in 1979.  Same story with my two sheds that blew down.  One key is to keep concrete from getting under the post so that moisture can escape.

I would be comfortable with a few of the posts being 18" to 20" deep.  Especially if the hole is bell-holed, a piece of rebar through a hole in the bottom of the post and concreted for 12".  
Living in hurricane country, we do a lot of post setting.  My concreted posts stayed in the ground even tho' the buildings were destroyed and in fact I had to dig most of them out with a backhoe.

[Banjo picker]

 



I poured 2 ft sq colums ...set anchor bolts ...and bolted the base plates down...You can get or make an imbed to put in the concrete to bolt a wood post to as well...Tim

[redbeard]

I put my posts on poured blocks also, if you hit one at least you can swap it out. Concrete will rot PT post, especially if you trap the water!Your hard pan will trap the water also. It will last along time but it will rot eventually. The rebar will rot faster than the post and drilling the bottom will just invite water in for faster deteriation. If your posts are creosote like tele-poles or pilings By all means concrete away they will never rot. Our codes in our area don't allow rebar to penetrate ground it will decay and rot concrete (electraulisus)  is the main culprit.