Putting up a mail box

[orangetrader]

The previous owner of the house has a mailbox outside in the front yard at the side of the road. It has a wrought iron post and is all corroded and the mail box itself is all chipped and corroded as well.

I brought a new wall mount mail box and mounted it next to the entrance. I then went to remove the one near the street. As I start to remove it it seems to be anchored real deep. I thought it was just the wrought iron post pounded 18-24" into the ground, but now I think may be there is poured concrete down there...so I started to dig...and the mail truck came and he stopped and asked me what I was doing. I explained to him and he told me I cannot switch to a wall mount, it has to be on the street even some of my neighbors have wall mounted boxes. Apparently those were "grandfathered in" and allowed but no new box can be mounted on the structure.

Now I need to buy a new mail box and post. Question is how can I build a new post? Do I need to dig a deep hole, pour some concrete in and stick in an iron post? Is this the best way?

Thanks,

O

[willshak]

Probably the only way. You can dig out the old concrete or move the mailbox post a couple of feet away. When I first moved into my house on a rural mail route, I mounted a metal post box on one side of my driveway. Unfortunately, there was a driveway directly accross the street and visitors to that house invariably backed into my post, denting it. The last straw was when a pizza delivery car backed into and snapped it off. I then moved the mailbox to the other side of my driveway and built a 4x4 PT mailbox post buried in concrete. It's been there for about 18 years now. Buy an 8' pressure treated post and make your own or go to HD or Lowes and buy the PT mailbox kit and a bag of quikrete cement. Dig the hole, mix the concrete, pour some in the hole, put the pole in, pour the rest of the concrete in the hole around the post, make sure the post is plumb, brace it so it doesn't go out of plumb until it dries, and then back fill. Mount your mailbox on the arm of the post. Paint the pole next year.

[Fiber Optic]

Home Depot sells an easy to install packaged mailbox post. You just hammer it in. Mailbox not included.

-Chris

orangetrader wrote:

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If you can cut or break it off just below the ground, you won't ever know it was there.

You have a few options. I bought a setup that just get hammered into the ground. IIRC, it was made by Rubbermaid and is available at Wal Mart, Home Despot, etc. You hammer in the base, then sit the pole atop it and last, mount the box. It was relatively cheap, is sturdy and looks OK. We get snow and the plow comes within inches of the box and has yet to damage it.

You can go the 4 x 4 wood route also. Use pressure treated and it will last for many years. That requires some digging to set it in deep enough.

[Martin]

Now I need to buy a new mail box and post. Question is how can I build a new post?<

I would buy one at the local home improvement store. Just remember that the height must be such that it can be serviced from the truck.

Is this the best way? >

Use the hole that's there and put in the new, probably wooden, post. If you need some extra stability you can always drop in boken pieces of concrete/pavers recycled from another project.

Martin the letter carrier ( [e-mail])

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" George Santyanna

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- orangetrader -

- Nehmo - Anything by the side of a road has the potential to be hit by a vehicle going off the road. A conscientious mail box installer plans for this possibility, and the first concern is that an impact of vehicle and the mail box & post doesn't kill anybody. Modern street light poles are break-away. Make your mail box post with similar forethought. Make it weak, brittle, or flexible.

Make the post of PVC, ABS, fiberglass rod, or a 2x2. If a car breaks the mail box down, that's what was supposed to happen.

[B©©B]

*** YOU IDIOT ***

If the post is that sturdy, leave the fu--ing thing alone..... Buy a couple cans of spray paint, and paint the iron post. Buy a new mailbox for about $10 and mount it to the post. Job done. Total expense, under $20. Total time for a NORMAL person to do the labor 2 hours or less. In YOUR case, you may need to hire a professional mailbox installer to screw the box to the post and hire a professional painter to spray the post. Total cost $2000. Total time for you to spend calling contractors to do the job, 2 hours on the phone.

B©©B

[B©©B]

A 2x2 ??????????????????????/ What the F--K ??????

Cheezzzzzus Key Risst. Why not just use some galldam toiletpaper roll cores, and scotch tape them together.

I see this thread is dominated by idiots. I should have known that installing a mailbox was too much for many of you who replied here.

Your mailbox is NOT going to kill anyone. It just sits there on it's post minding it's own business. If some drunk hits it with his car, he deserves to die. However, it wont be your mailbox that kills him, it will be the tree or rocks next to the mailbox, or the fire that starts when he rolls his car over in the ditch.

B©©B

[PrecisionMachinisT]

Get a po box and tell that social reject to go f*ck him self.

[Joseph Meehan]

You can go to the USPS site and you will find that it is their rule. Existing wall mounts are allowed to stay, but not new ones. In some areas they are even eliminating the existing ones.

I suggest as other have,. Cut the existing one off below grade and put in a new one. Dig a new hole or try one of the metal spike type things from the Big Box store that uses a 4x4 post.

[willshak]

Yeah, and have the utility company take down any poles that may be close to the road on your property. Also, take down any concrete walls or posts you may have along the edge of the roadway, and remove any trees that may get hit by a car. You should also buy a whole lot of those water filled plastic barrier barrels and line them up along your frontage.

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Nehmo -

- B©©B -

- Nehmo - You've never accidently driven off the road, B©©B?

Have you ever *been driven* off the road by another vehicle?

Have you ever been a passenger of a car?

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Nehmo -

- willshak -

- Nehmo - Utilitiy companies and governments do recognize that vehicles don't always stay on the road, and utility companies and governements have taken, and are taking, steps to accomodate these events. Using the break-away poles I mentioned earlier is one method of dealing with the problem. Thouthful positioning of the poles is another.

Many existing utility lines are located where they are because it was convenientent to install them there. Modern design places more emphsis on saftey.

- willshak -

- Nehmo - A shallow trench filled with sand would work too. If your property is located on a risky stretch of road, this is an option.

Highway Illumination Manual:

[Phisherman]

First of all get guidelines about your mail box from the post office. This will tell you exactly where to mount the box. The post and how to secure it is up to you. For example, you can buy a PT 4x4 and a bag of cement or buy one that you simply push into the ground. Another option is to get a PO box and not have a mailbox at all.

[Greg]

Why should running off the road and destroying private property be a totally risk free endevor? What percentage of drivers who mow down a mailbox actually stop and offer to reimburse the owner? A friend of mine couldn't keep a mailbox, until he put it up on an 8" box beam, poured solid with concrete. The next guy who hit it tried to make a case ... until he pointed out the 25MPH speed limit sign next to the box and measured the skid marks. You have no legal obligation to make things on your property idiot safe, in spite of what an ambulance chasing attorney may try to prove in court.

Shakespear had it right "Kill all the lawyers".

[willshak]

How about a water filled moat? Do you own a home located on a street, and have you protected all users of the roadway so that they don't get hurt if they run off the road onto your property?

Sorry. That is for street lights, traffic signs, and traffic signals. It does not mention poles that carry electric, telephone, or cable TV wiring; much less mailbox posts. We have wooden utility poles here and have no street lights, except at intersections, and they use the same wooden pole to mount the lights. Anyway, I figure that a 4x4 mailbox post set in concrete would provide more safety than a fragile breakaway mailbox post would. If a car ran into it, it might slow down the car enough so that it doesn't hit that big oak tree 10' behind it at full speed.

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Greg -

- Nehmo - The one who gets injuried is not always the guilty driver. There are passengers and sometimes the driver is forced off the road.

- Greg -

- Nehmo - That's not quite true. It depends. But I'm simply talking about the moral obligation to minimize hazards.

[Oscar_Lives]

This is bullshit. It some drunk hits my mailbox, I want to help encourage him to meet his maker.

I have a friend out on a country road who used to lose his mail box to joy-riding good ol' boys every other saturday night. Finally, he fixed it good: He got a 6" heavy steel "I" beam, sunk it into about 3.5 feet of concrete, and covered it with a thin veneer of bark to make it look like an ol tree limb. The next sunday morning, he found tracks in the mud leading up to his mailbox, with a couple of scrapes on the bark, antifreeze all over the ground, and broken glass and turn signal lens laying all around.

If some bastard hits my mailbox, I want to make sure he know it.

[Martin]

---I got three sons and all four of them are named "William".....and my wife is named Georgia---

I'm wondering about where to send the abuse note concerning your vulgarities. I suppose abuse @hotmail.com will have to do.

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" George Santyanna

[Greg]

Spoken like a man who has hit more mailboxes than he has had to replace.