How deep to bury a bump guard

[nate379]

I have to put a pole to protect my gas meter from being hit.

It's in compacted gravel, very hard digging. I have a 3ft deep hole and I belled out the bottom. The top is about 12" diameter and the bottom about 20" (this is so frost won't lift it)

Pole is 4" schedule 10 conduit that will be concrete filled and ~48" from the ground.

Deep enough?? It took me about 3hrs to dig and the last 4-5" took almost an hr so I hope so. I can't find anything on the web that says for sure.

It's more there for looks because if I would hit the gas meter I'd be taking out the gutter first but I don't want it to flop over if I did bump it of course.

 

[russlaferrera]

I can not answer your question. You can try the Building department in your area. As a suggestion, I would drive 4 heavy rebar pieces on an angle after you place the pole in the hole, to add more area to the concrete. Make sure the rebar ends stick out into the concrete.

 

[nate379]

I asked the gas company and they couldn't give me an answer as to what it had to hold up.

I've never put a door guard or anything like that so I have no idea how deep those usually are. I know one of the guys backed into one at work and bent it in 1/2 and it barely dented in the stock Ford bumper, so I can't imagine they are all that strong!

 

[Stuart in MN]

I'm surprised the gas company doesn't have a standard specification, most utilities have a whole handbook on service installation details. They're formally called Bollards, by the way - if you do a google search on 'bollard detail' several examples show up.

 

[redsky49]

Schedule 10 pipe is thin wall. Typically bollards are a heavier wall pipe - Sched. 40 or heavier.

What is frost depth for your location?

As always, offered only as opinion

 

[Fast Orange]

You should be OK at 3' deep-just fill the hole around the bollard to within a couple of inches from the finish grade with concrete and fill the pole to the top.Paint it safety yellow for visibility and you're good to go.Mound the concrete on the top of the pole for run-off.
I put in door guards at a loading dock at a former job-6" sched 40 black iron pipe-4' in concrete,4' out of ground- acouple of them got moved a bit,but they kept the semis away from the doors.I'm assuming your traffic is a bit lighter than an 80,000 lb truck.

 

[nate379]

Schedule 10 4" was free, vs a 10ft length of sch 40 is $130. I think it will be fine once I fill it. Really just to stop a 5-10mph collosion, either while backing up or sliding on the ice.

Gas company wrote me up for it, but provided no info on what specs to do off of, and when I called they were no help. It really only has to be fixed if and when I sell (just bought) but since my driveway is gravel right now and supposed to be paved next week it made sense to do it now.

Frost depth is 10-12 ft depending on how the ground is.

Never heard of a bollard before. Thanks for the info on that!

Pic isn't the best, but the gutter pipe is right near the corner of my garage and the hole is right behind the bollard location.

I thought about putting it on the corner of the garage instead but I didn't like the way it looked. I'm really not worried about hitting anything, just need to satisfy the gas company.

 

[larry4406]

Here is a bollard detail from a warehouse in northern virginia that I remodeled.

 

[nate379]

That is pretty much what I'm going to do, just not so deep. I'd like to sink it ~5ft but hang digging that just isn't going to happen. There is too much rock to try and use an auger, plus being against the house I don't want to risk it.

The hole is 36" deep and I'm going to fill it with concrete to 32" and then compacted gravel on that and then pavment.

I might dig it a big deeper tomorrow, but it's really slow going the deeper I go.

 

[akdiesel]

Not sure why the contractor or the gas company did not do this when it was hooked up.
What about a cage mounted to the wall. I am sure you could fabricate one up easy enough with the location you work at.
Then chain a pitbull to it when the next time they come to get the readings.

 

[nate379]

The parking spot is something I added on after everything was completed.

The gas line was ripped out while dozing the parking spot and that's when the gas co (Enstar) got into my buisness about it. I pulled the bullard out of the garage since I'm enclosing the boiler in a closet. They guy about had a coronary when he saw that.

Other option would be to move the meter to around to the other side of the house but that is a mess I don't want to start.

 

[kbs2244]

Put it in as is.
I am getting the idea this is an appearance thing.
If you aren't driving anything past it heavier than a Jeep,
and the inspector can't move it when he kicks it,
I think you will be OK.

 

[35mastr]

Its a good idea to put one in. My friend took his out one night with the race car trailer backing in the yard.

Was pretty scary stuff till they got the gas turned off. PGandE worked on it all night.

Funny thing was it happened over 6 years ago and they never billed him for it.

 

[nate379]

The Jeep just happens to be there but I have an 18ft 10k trailer that I will park there along with probably a truck or two.

Put it in as is.
I am getting the idea this is an appearance thing.
If you aren't driving anything past it heavier than a Jeep,
and the inspector can't move it when he kicks it,
I think you will be OK.

 

[1320stang]

I'd put two and have a cross piece welded between the two.

I've never seen a house mounted meter, down here they all stub up from the ground, and if that was the case, I'd put 4 posts in a surround it with the posts connected, that way if you hit it, all 4 take the brunt.

 

[boiler7904]

I think you're good as is for the type of traffic and location. You might consider a second one though on the other side so that one of the trailers doesn't snap the meter as you pull it out of the space.

Usual spec for them when I worked for a commercial architecture firm was concrete filled 6" sch 40 buried to 5' below grade but we were protecting openings or items like gas meters from medium and heavy duty trucks. A construction equipment repair building we did used 8" pipe.

 

[nate379]

I was looking at it today and I think your right where I need to put one on the other side. The gas company isn't requiring it, but at this point it's not much more work or materials. Once it gets paved I'll be SOL.

ARGH! Hahaha.

I'll put another about where the post hole digger is.

I had a freebie 10' stick of schedule 10 but I might end up just buying a 16ft stick of schedule 40.. ~$200 though.

 

[1320stang]

I'd get a piece of 2" to tie them together if you have a welder. Also makes a nice spot to lift you foot up to tie your boots, or sit on while you're cleaning the mud out of the soles, surely someone has some scrap pipe up there you can get for cheap. We used to get 2 3/8" oilfield pipe that was already full of concrete to build fences out of.

 

[russlaferrera]

Scrap Rail Road Track?

 

[Kevin54]

Nate379......Nice looking place. I am assuming it is all new. Question...is it common practice to backfill around a foundation all the way to the bottom of the siding in your area? I know around our area a couple of blocks have to be exposed to help deter termite damage. Houses that had dirt up to the bottom of the siding was an open invitation for a termite smorgasbord.

 

[nate379]

No termites in Alaska.


The white you see is just flashing over 2" foam. The top of the slab is a bit higher than the top of that flashing.

 

[Pointbock]

No termites in Alaska.

or snakes, or ticks

 

[1320stang]

Skeeters are horrible though I hear.

 

[rsanter]

I think the rule of thumb is to go as deep as you are sticking up above the ground.

for your application I think you are deep enough

bob

 

[35mastr]

I would add the other also. But I would use what you have and just fill it with concrete.

You are never going to knock them down unless you hit them at any high speed. Or even move them.

 

[79firebird]

At work the gas co put one on one side of the meter and it was fine for over a year then they sead it needed anouther one its a cement driveway so all they did was put some anchers in the cement and bolted it up and never got charged. I think they are susposto put a guard in for it as they allways do that here when its in a driveway and what not.

 

[nate379]

Well about done today. I ended up hand digging a hole 4ft deep about 4x3ft in size.

Moved the gas line over, got 2 cardboard tubes. One 10" and one 14". Cut pieces 16" long out of the 14" tube and stuck it on the end of the 10". I just used some 2x4 scrap for a spacer and screwed it together. Little bit of duct tape and cardboard filled the gap.

Set them in my hole and filled it in tamping it every 6" of fill.

I'm waiting for my pipe to show up and then I will be able to fill the tubes with concrete and set my pipes. I'm just using 4" schedule 10 since it's $6.50/ft vs $12/ft for schedule 40.

Sorry no pics, wasn't on my mind while I was sweating my *** off digging in rock.

 

[tomroblee]

I retired from a gas utility in central Indiana. They most commonly ordered pipe in 7' lengths for that purpose. I've never measured, but I would guess that about half of it was buried.

 

[nate379]

Well I need to weld some pipe together tomorrow and set them in. Would have done it today but my welder was still packed and I needed to find where it was.

I got a free piece of "IMC" (I think that's what it is anyhow) galvanized pipe, but it was only 6.5 ft long. I bought another stick today, 10ft for $116.. ouch!

Cut the 10ft into 2 5 ft and then the 6.5 into 2 33" and 2 6" chunks.

Will end up with 2 7.5' long pipes with the welded end in the ground. The 6" chucks I split in half to make 4 clam shells and I'll weld it over the **** weld to give it more strength. Probably don't need to, but it's not much extra work.

So... all in all I have about $230 into this. Nuts how a small project just adds up in cost so fast!

OH BTW, I used my new cold saw and it is AWESOME. The pipe I am using is about 3/16" wall and it cut it like a knife through butter! Minimal sparks and no dust!

http://www.evolutiononlineshop.com/...stom,x,2,2000,x/Evolution Rage 2/Rage 2 Saw/

 

[kidatari]

Be very careful welding Galvanized pipe. You need to completely remove the galvanized coating before welding, as the zinc fumes can be deadly.

 

[nate379]

Eh, I figured I'd sniff it in.. gives a little giddy up in the gallop yeah know

 

[nate379]

Got it all welded up and planted in the ground. I had 8 bags of concrete, ran out but it looked like I just needed 1 more. Well I needed 2 more so I will have to get 1 more back in the morning. 800lbs of concrete