Driveway Arches

[NWSanta]

Hey All,

 

So life has moved on and I'm back into decorating again.

 

TLDR - Life happened, had to reinvent display.

 

Ok, I have a question about driveway arches, back in 2008 I had driveway arches over my driveway and though they worked they always bothered me by how wiggly they were. I used 1 inch irrigation PVC over my driveway and then used giant garden stakes that I pounded into my lawn to stop them from swaying.

 

I'm sure in 6 years somebody has come up with something that doesn't sway as bad. I was thinking about using Grey Electrical Conduit 3/4 inch, as it's thicker wall might not wiggle as much. Should I use EMT maybe so that it doesn't sway as bad or will I still have to support it? 

Just wondering if I'm missing something or if I will still need big garden stakes to stop it from swaying around.

 

Looking for input.

My old display:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYHzSTtS-cw&list=UUCZRa6bXTugtgDxlwGfOR2A

 

Last years display:

https://vimeo.com/82976728

 

 

Cheers Thanks guys

Evan

 

 

[oilmoney]

I waited until Canadian tire had the temporary carport/fabric garages on sale and then bought one just for the frame. I'm leaving some slack where the pieces come together so I can separate them and fold them together for easy storage while keeping the lights attached. It seems to me that the life expectancy of those garages is not much more than 5 years so there's always people throwing them away, ask around, I bet someone knows where a free frame is for you. I bought mine at the wrong time, when I was looking nobody had one, after I bought one people were approaching me with free ones....

[rjmcmasters]

I agree SWSanta on the electrical PVC conduit.  Mine are Sch40 and way to brittle in the cold.  I will be switching mine over to the electrical conduit for next year when I move to RGB strips on the arches.  For this year, will keep the LEDs on the Sch40.

[smallcrpt]

i'm on three years with sch 40 grey conduit 3/4. with GECE icicles ziptied to them. I smash 5 foot rebar pieces in the ground and slide them over. they have collapsed in the middle during ice storms, but 32' long because of a double driveway. 

 

i'll be using them again this year, fingers crossed.

[NWSanta]

Well I bought 5 foot Angle iron to bash into the ground and then thought I would strap the arches to that. My arches will be 30 feet so hopefully it all holds. 

Do you separate them every year or are your sections glued together? I thought that I would just put a cotter pin where they join to hold them together.

[rwertz]

We have two 20' arches. I used two pieces of 1" Gray Electrical PVC Conduit for each. They are supported with rebar at the edges of the driveway and a weighted tire with pipes in the middle. I've probably seen the tops swaying six inches.

 

Keeping them together hasn't been an issue. But we take them apart every year and getting them apart has been a little tough. I put Vaseline at the couplers every year. Sometimes we can grab both pieces and twist them apart. Sometimes we have to lay them on the ground and tap them apart with a hammer (and a homemade pry bar that wraps around the inner piece).

[bktalon]

We have a 300 foot long driveway, 14 feet wide, I pounded 3 inch galv pipe 4 feet into the ground with a sledge hammer left 1 foot above ground and cut off the top so it was round again, then slid 2 1/4 inch galv pipe inside that so it stands about 6 feet high, then used 3 inch grey conduit and slid that over the  galv pipe. to make the "arch" I used bre bent 3 inch conduit 90's  which are aprox 2 1/2 feet long each direction then a 10 foot section of 3 inch conduit and the same on the other side... the arch is about 13 1/2 feet tall, and 15 feet wide. on that I have 3 sets of lights for each of the 6 colors we are using for it, red,green,orange,white,blue and purple. I have 7 of these arches covering the aprox 300 feet spaced about 40 feet apart. everyone who comes to see the lights loves them. I have never had any problems with the elements damaging them with the harsh winters here in Maine, but when a set of lights goes out, on the top cross of the arch, its not fun to fix or replace when its 10 degrees out and snowing LOL

[bktalon]

finally got around to posting a couple of pictures, 2 of the arches leading down our driveway, and 1 of the 100 foot long train along the main road  that I constructed from pvc pipe and rope light, that is a huge attraction for us   http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/Brian_K_Talon/library/?view=recent&page=1