just did a search for some info on sizing a concrete base for a pole light...came across a post by MDshunk where he stated something to the effect of "it's not like anyone is going to try to put 2' of concrete in the ground for a 20' pole"..and his rule of thumb was basically 1' down for every 5' up...i.e. a 20' pole would get 4' buried...
well, i'm here to say that Mark was wrong...we recently had a pole hit in the parking lot of one of our customers...the base was knocked over pretty good...when we went to dig it up to straighten it out, we received a nice little surprise...
poles are 25' with 2 shoebox heads...base is 30" diameter...base is 2' 6" above the ground...and we learned that when they installed it, they buried literally 15" of base in the ground...
so to be clear, they had a total of roughly 4' of concrete base, and 2' 6" of that 4' was above the asphalt...
good times...
well, i'm here to say that Mark was wrong...we recently had a pole hit in the parking lot of one of our customers...the base was knocked over pretty good...when we went to dig it up to straighten it out, we received a nice little surprise...
poles are 25' with 2 shoebox heads...base is 30" diameter...base is 2' 6" above the ground...and we learned that when they installed it, they buried literally 15" of base in the ground...
so to be clear, they had a total of roughly 4' of concrete base, and 2' 6" of that 4' was above the asphalt...
good times...