Hollowing out telegraph poles

TrailRat · 2006-07-29T19:48:56+00:00

A friend of mine is having a huge underground bunker style room putinto his garden. It will be the length + width of his garden and willbe buried under 2' of soil. It will be connected to his bungalow foraccess and will be used as a workshop for his various hobbies.It's costing him a small fortune but he's not concerned about that.The civil engineering firm will build the structure and top it of withsoil but everything else he has to do himself. This is where I came in.He had concerns about getting natural light in over his workbenches andI recommended sunlight pipes. He had a look at them and liked what hesaw. Now the problem is he doesn't want little clear domes over hislawn so he is raising the domes 8' and having long sunlight pipes. Thecompany has assured him that the pipes will still work over the 11'distance.So after putting my foot in my mouth, my mate has told me that to hidethe ugly silver ducting he want to encase them in old telegraph poles.To do so they need to be hollowed down the middle and these poles areall 10' long. I've told him that the easiest way would be to split themin half and channel out the waste then put the two halves together withthe ducting in the middle. But he doesn't like the fact that spiltmight be seeable and may cause concerns later on.He has told me that no matter the expense, he'll hire whateverequipment I need to hollow these poles out if there is another way todo it other than splitting it.So my quandry is how do I hollow out 10 x 10' telegraph pole withoutsplitting them down the middle.If there is no other feasible way then my friend is willing to seesense and relenquish the decision to me.Sorry for the long windedness but I felt I should explain why I neededto know.TR

Jul 29, 2006 27 Replies

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bremen68 19 years ago

I'm thinking that you're going to have to support those poles with something other than the 2' of soil... Since you're going to have to tie them together somehow any way, why not do some sort of pergala arrangement. Case the pipes with the wood of your choice, tie them together to make a nice pergala...Solves the problem of supporting them, covers the pipes, and .......The big bonus is the plants that grow on the pergala will disguise the heat signature from infra-red searches... ;-)

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henry 19 years ago

The longer the tube the less light. Use short tubes and put a hotbed over it to hide "the dome". If he does decide to use ugly creosote poles in his garden make sure he doesnt eat any of the veggies from the contaminated soil.

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Fly-by-Night CC 19 years ago

Anyone else suspect this has a Rapala tied to the last sentence?

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Dhakala 19 years ago

Trained termites.

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Lew Hodgett 19 years ago

With great difficulty and at great expense.

As Flip Wilson would have said, "Devil made me do it".

Lew

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mac davis 19 years ago

damn sure isn't a lucky 13... they were made outta wood.. Mac

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TrailRat 19 years ago

Ok Ok.

It seems I made a mistake calling this thing a bunker. The better term then would be an extend cellar made of reinforced concrete a foot thick. :o)

He has a bungalow and a garden which is enclosed on both sides by neighbours and the only place to put his workshop is underground.

He makes a pretty pound as a designer, architect and property lawyer. His hobbies are numerous but mainly he needs space to draw plans and build models. He's not too bright on the implementation of his ideas, like hollowing out telegraph poles.

Thanks to your kind words he's dropped the idea and is lowering the domes into a 3' high raised flower bed. The domes will be part of the retaining wall which means this is no longer my concern.

For that I thank you.

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LRod 19 years ago

As a matter of fact, I was thinking just that earlier this morning. Had to look up Rapala, though.

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