# Telephone poles



## sprout

Do used telephone poles work well for fence post, corners and braces? Have used hedge in the past but have a few poles laying around I would like to get used up. THANKS!


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## Vol

They do....and especially so if they are creosote treated. It is important to cover the top of the post with some light tin/sheet metal.

Regards, Mike


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## somedevildawg

sprout said:


> Do used telephone poles work well for fence post, corners and braces? Have used hedge in the past but have a few poles laying around I would like to get used up. THANKS!


It should be noted that telephone poles are different than utility poles....telephone poles are generally much smaller in diameter and work real well for fence application, utility poles usually are much larger in diameter and quite heavy, they will work but the hole has to be really big and they are really heavy. Probably not much better than old telephone poles in good condition. I like to make corner posts out of poles and braces out of fence posts. Don't forget the sheet metal on top, it will prolong the life dramatically....hth, welcome to haytalk


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## NewBerlinBaler

How long are your poles? Back in 2012, I priced 30-foot telephone poles and they were $350 each! I ended up buying 14-foot fence posts for $25 each - they look like short telephone poles. These posts are almost half as long as 30-foot poles but cost less than one tenth as much.

So even if you need "tall" fence posts, you're still better off selling the telephone poles - if they're in good shape - and buying the fence posts you need. Don't cut up expensive telephone poles to make cheap fence posts.


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## SCtrailrider

I use them, mine came from the rail road, they are some biguns, bought a extension for my 12" auger and put them 4' deep and still enlarge the hole by hand and pack with crusher run gravel.. I use chain link fence pipe for the top brace, seem to last longer than wooden brace does...


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## somedevildawg

I bet they were... new telephone poles are expensive, a company makes them down the road, take the trees and debarked them and cull them before sending south for pressure treating, once there I guess they go out to distributors/users.....personally, I've never paid for them. I usually keep an eye out for replacement crews and go behind them, they usually will leave them for you if you talk to the right people....or go down to your local utility shop and see if you can talk to the right folks, they usually take them back to the shop and have to dispose of them. I've picked up a many at Georgia Power and our rural carrier.....talk to someone that knows someone that once had a sister  married to a lineman or a uncle that reads meters  do they do that anymore? You're sure to find some on the cheap if you look and talk to the right folk.....I once bought a trailer load (20?) for $100. The older ones with creosote are hard to find, usually a big utility will have a few but not many around anymore.


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## somedevildawg

SCtrailrider said:


> I use them, mine came from the rail road, they are some biguns, bought a extension for my 12" auger and put them 4' deep and still enlarge the hole by hand and pack with crusher run gravel.. I use chain link fence pipe for the top brace, seem to last longer than wooden brace does...


Good idea.....il have to try that next time, never thunk of it...


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## sprout

Thanks Guys. I have maybe 10, they were free, My favorite!! Made a bridge across a ravine for my atv with 2 and will use the rest for fence post. The black creasote post are kind of spendy anymore. Thanks again.


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## CowboyRam

We had the electric utility give us three power poles when they had to move some poles for the highway expansion. We cut one in half when we put in a our stock tank, and the other two we put in the corral this year; going to hang some lights on them and light up that corral like it was day.


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## IHCman

NewBerlinBaler said:


> How long are your poles? Back in 2012, I priced 30-foot telephone poles and they were $350 each! I ended up buying 14-foot fence posts for $25 each - they look like short telephone poles. These posts are almost half as long as 30-foot poles but cost less than one tenth as much.
> 
> So even if you need "tall" fence posts, you're still better off selling the telephone poles - if they're in good shape - and buying the fence posts you need. Don't cut up expensive telephone poles to make cheap fence posts.


Are those new posts for 350? Here when they replace a telephone pole they ask the landowner if they want them. The company that replaces them doesn't want the hassle of hauling them somewhere to dispose of them.


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## IHCman

We've used many telephone poles for windbreak posts and for corner posts. The creosote ones will last darn near forever other than the untreated top might rot off. Since getting a post pounder I'd rather not use phone poles much anymore. Yes you can sharpen those big buggers and drive em in but its much easier to buy a sharpened 7 to 8 inch post that'll drive in a lot easier. I haven't completely gone away from wood posts yet but I've been doing H braces with 2 7/8 drill stem. Takes a little more time but shouldn't push up in wet ground and should last the rest of my life.

The best poles I've seen are some that had the old party line when it was till hung above ground before they came and laid the new telephone wire underground. Grandpa had a bunch of those posts when they pulled that line out. Still have metal tags on some of them with a year of 1949 stamped on them. Dad pulled some of those out of the ground at Grandpa's place and dug them back in at his place for windbreak, still standing today. Not sure what those posts are treated with. Their white from weather and they don't smell like a creosote post does.


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## slowzuki

Cca treated telephone poles, the 19 ft ones are 60$ Canadian each here. Still cheaper to get the 20$ Used ones the power company and phone company sell.


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## SCtrailrider

somedevildawg said:


> Good idea.....il have to try that next time, never thunk of it...


Yea, it's easy to find a big wood bit and drill a hole for the pipe to go in, and high tension wire & a good ratchet strainer are cheap & easy & fast to tighten when needed...


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## KYhaymaker

IHCman said:


> We've used many telephone poles for windbreak posts and for corner posts. The creosote ones will last darn near forever other than the untreated top might rot off. Since getting a post pounder I'd rather not use phone poles much anymore. Yes you can sharpen those big buggers and drive em in but its much easier to buy a sharpened 7 to 8 inch post that'll drive in a lot easier. I haven't completely gone away from wood posts yet but I've been doing H braces with 2 7/8 drill stem. Takes a little more time but shouldn't push up in wet ground and should last the rest of my life.
> 
> The best poles I've seen are some that had the old party line when it was till hung above ground before they came and laid the new telephone wire underground. Grandpa had a bunch of those posts when they pulled that line out. Still have metal tags on some of them with a year of 1949 stamped on them. Dad pulled some of those out of the ground at Grandpa's place and dug them back in at his place for windbreak, still standing today. Not sure what those posts are treated with. Their white from weather and they don't smell like a creosote post does.


Lots of arsenic, probably.

Creosote lasts a long time too...I have a bunch of telephone pole creosote posts the previous owner used on my place. Ill say this, wear a long sleeve shirt working with them especially if its a hot day lol.


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## luke strawwalker

I picked up a bunch of light poles when they replaced the lines out here a few years ago... farmers were basically picking them up as soon as they hit the ground. Didn't get as many as I want, but I figure we gotta share LOL

I use them for hay storage-- round bales sitting on our clay loses a LOT of hay to ground moisture wicking up into the bottom of the bale and turning it into cardboard/mulch... I put two light poles about 3 feet apart, just wide enough for the bales to sit on and still be up off the ground without rolling off, and narrow enough for the tractor to straddle without the tires rubbing on them. It keeps the hay up off the ground and leaves an "air gap" under there which keeps the bale bottoms dry. I had been using old scrap pallets I was getting for free at the school district warehouse when I was driving a schoolbus, but many of them were in rough shape and they didn't last over 2-3 seasons AT MOST before they basically rotted into the ground, then you're picking up rotted lumber full of nails and crap and having to burn it and clean up the nails afterwards... What a mess!

I needed more hay storage so I found a source of free plastic pallets and I've picked up a few loads of them, and are giving them a try. They'll prevent ground moisture from wicking up, but I'm not sure how much "runoff" from the bale sides in rain will end up wicking between the plastic pallet surface and bale in storage, either, but I figure even if some DOES it will be a heck of a lot less than sitting directly on the ground, and cheaper and easier to use than going with crushed stone or broken bricks/rubble bale row bases...

Later! OL J R


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