Building sidewalk arches

[welder_man12]

Hello everybody, Im new to all of this and very excited to get started. I want to build archways over our sidewalk leading up to the house. I want them to be 7' tall in the center of the arch and 4' wide if my math is right i would need something 18' 3" long to bend over the side walk. any suggestions on what i should use. I was going to you round bar as I am a welder by trade. There has to be something easier.

[k6ccc]

Generally people use PVC pipe. Stick a piece of rebar into the ground at each end and slip the PVC over the rebar to hold it in place. A lot of people use sleeves of larger PVC over the full length. These sleeves are as short as a foot and generally not more than 3 feet long. Wrap light strings around the sleeves. That makes it easier to make repairs or changes to the arch. Lots of threads here on the forums on arch building.

[Aaron Maue]

Welder...

Most of the threads here are for leaping arches, and they pretty much all use PVC. You should check them out, but I'm not sure it will all translate 100% to what you'd like to do, as you're trying to put arches over the sidewalk.

Another suggestion is to take a look at a few of the threads on driveway arches. Those might be more similar, just on a larger scale than your sidewalk arches. I pasted a couple below.

http://forums.lightorama.com/forum81/26971.html

http://forums.lightorama.com/forum80/20591.html

Finally, for what it's worth, we're thinking about adding these in '13 (yeah - we're already thinking about our show 2 years from now - sick right?). So, we did a little research last weekend and found a large sidewalk "tunnel". They used 3/4" PVC (the thin-walled stuff) and just bent one long piece and stuck the ends into the ground with re-bar. Then, they attached a support piece the entire length of the tunnel at the top of the arch. They put each arch about every 18" apart, loosely wrapped with lights. And then ran a sting of lights the whole length of the tunnel, spaced about 2' apart. They more-or-less made their own net lights on a large scale.

I'm not sure we'd do it the same way they did it, but gives some food for thought. Good luck and enjoy this obsession -- er, hobby --. This was my first year and I've enjoyed it thoroughly.

[Guest Don Gillespie]

welder_man12 wrote:

Hello everybody, Im new to all of this and very excited to get started. I want to build archways over our sidewalk leading up to the house. I want them to be 7' tall in the center of the arch and 4' wide if my math is right i would need something 18' 3" long to bend over the side walk. any suggestions on what i should use. I was going to you round bar as I am a welder by trade. There has to be something easier.

Kevin welcome aboard, nice to have met you, here is a link to some arches,

large driveway arches (8 replies - 428 views)

[ItsMeBobO]

Aaron Maue wrote:

http://forums.lightorama.com/forum81/26971.html
 
http://forums.lightorama.com/forum80/20591.html

I think these are the links Aaron meant.

[TJ Hvasta]

hmmm, neither links work..

[Guest Don Gillespie]

TJ Hvasta wrote:

hmmm, neither links work..

I noticed that also TJ thats why I sent Kevin the driveway arch

[Bill P]

Is this what you are talking about?

[welder_man12]

That is exactly what I'm looking for. Any idea what was used for those. I'm afraid if I use plastic pipe the sides will bulge out and look like crap.

[ItsMeBobO]

TJ Hvasta wrote:

hmmm, neither links work..

ItsMeBobO wrote:

Aaron Maue wrote:

http://forums.lightorama.com/forum81/26971.html
http://forums.lightorama.com/forum80/20591.html

I think these are the links Aaron meant.

This is a bug in the forum. I tested these links in preview mode and they did work. No one cares about the content now for this thread. Just retesting the links.

[Bill P]

This is what I used for them. There are 6 of them spray painted black but I didn"t use their lights.

http://www.partycity.com/product/white+wedding+arch+96in.do?sortby=ourPicks&size=all&from=Search&navSet=garden arch

[Bill P]

ItsMeBobO wrote:

TJ Hvasta wrote:

hmmm, neither links work..

ItsMeBobO wrote:

Aaron Maue wrote:

http://forums.lightorama.com/forum81/26971.html
http://forums.lightorama.com/forum80/20591.html

I think these are the links Aaron meant.

This is a bug in the forum. I tested these links in preview mode and they did work. No one cares about the content now for this thread. Just retesting the links.

They all worked for me right from the getgo.

[welder_man12]

Ok thanks I will have to see what I can find closer to home. If I can find some they will do the trick Im sure.