Free standing sign – on Tarmac

[Steve Morgan]

Phil,
I had a similar request some months ago and decided that digging holes through tarmac, concrete, foundations or whatever, needed either specialist equipment or a lot of brawn. The site I had was right alongside a pavement so there was also risk of hitting underground services.
I buy my poles and clips from a firm that install roadside signs for the local council so they dug the holes and cemented the posts in and I went along the next day and put the sign up. I got a bill for about £125 which seemed to be very reasonable because they had about 300mm of solid material to go through.

Steve

[David Lowery]

Hire a thingamajig that you scan the area which lets you know what services are under the tarmac. Most hire shops have them but can’t remember what they are called 😕 Also hire a breaker bar – invaluable 🙂

Dave

[Robert Lambie]

Hi Phill
there are a few ways of breaking the surface, some neater than others.
if you want to keep things neat you could cut the initial hole in the surface with the likes of a stihl saw or similar.
as has been said, you will need a "cat scan" to check for under ground wires, pipes etc which can be hired for the day from any good tool hire shop. if you cant get hold of one your welcome to use ours.
a steel pinch bar is essential for digging with and a small headed spade.
the trouble you are going to get is the ground reinforcing. below the tarmac you will basically have heavy rubble/concrete etc before you hit any sort of soil. in some cases you "wont even reach soil" heavy going if more than one hole. ide advise on a jack hammer drill too if this is the case…
another option, "but will depend on how hard the ground is" (harder the better) is getting a local hire company to cut you two holes using a core cutter. they basically arrive with and mini excavator with a core cutter on the end. cut you two neat holes were you need them and you drop the poles in and back fill with concrete. so much easier, quicker and neater. we had this done a long time back in a truck yard, the ground was a couple of feet of reinforced concrete. they cut perfect holes in no time and left…
any option above may sound a long winded process but its not…
bill the customer accordingly stating you are just following H&S procedures, which you are!

[David McDonald]

Hi Phil

I know rob did a demo on something like this but why not build a box and fill with concrete? Make a feature of it?

This is one we did because this flower bed was about 4" deep and under that was an old concrete area that we just couldn’t break through to mount the posts in

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … highlight=

Cheers
Macky

[Robert Lambie]

thats a very good idea macky… nice one mate…

here is a link to the tutorial based on this…
https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=18429

[John Childs]

I’ve got the same problem Phill.

Mine must be free standing though, because they will need to be moved occasionally. I’m looking into posts cast into concrete bases. I’ll let you know how I get on.

[George Elsmore]

quote :

getting a local hire company to cut you two holes using a core cutter. they basically arrive with and mini excavator with a core cutter on the end. cut you two neat holes were you need them

Rob you mean someone like hss hire? i have never seen this service offered?

just pondering

G 😀

[John Childs]

Guys, guys, guys.

The man is asking about free standing signs and you’re all telling him how to dig holes in tarmac. 😀

[George Elsmore]

underground free standing signs :lol1:

[John Childs]

Oh, I see. These are just inspection hatches then? 😀

[Harry Cleary]

quote John Childs:

Guys, guys, guys.

The man is asking about free standing signs and you’re all telling him how to dig holes in tarmac. 😀

I was gonna point that out John, but I knew George liked digging holes 😀 😀

[Phill Fenton]

Thanks for all the advice. When I said free standing I meant free standing in the ground. In other words I would need holes cut or dug into the Tarmac. This is also going to be quite a large directory board type of sign and although I like the idea of planting it in a concrete box above ground I’m worried that when it gets windy – the lever action of what will be quite a large sign will cause it to topple.

I’m now thinking along the lines of what George has suggested and asking a diamond core drilling company to cut two holes to plant the posts into.

[George Elsmore]

Phill there are base plate pole systems where you could just drill four holes into the ground matching the holes in the baseplate and use hilti anchors much cheaper and labour intensive, heavy duty sds drill from a hire shop for half a day you will even get the anchors from the hireshop

http://www.hilti.co.uk/holuk/modules/pr … OID=-28487

G

[Benno]

George, that may cause a problem, because tarmac is not as hard as most people think. I had a same sign like this a while a go and asked a road expert about just drilling some anchors in the tarmac.
He explained that although tarmac feels hard, it will slowly change shape and the anchors will loosen.

[John Childs]

quote Phill:

Thanks for all the advice. When I said free standing I meant free standing in the ground.

I stand corrected. 😳

Carry on George. 😀

[George Elsmore]

it depends whats under the tarmac ie concrete/hardcore and the length of the anchor believe me the anchors can be long enough to hold a gantry up!

[Mike Grant]

We have done one or two posts through tarmac, all we did was cut a neat square about 12" square with an angle grinder, dig the hole, concrete neatly up to top of tarmac. You could paint the concrete black if needed, but if done neatly you can get away with just leaving it.