How do I mount an outdoor clothes line in concrete?

[fremontmama]

I am not sure if this is the right area for this post......

We have one of those umbrella clothes lines that I love to use. However, the best area on our tiny postage stamp lot to have it set up is at the front of the driveway. I want to mount it in the driveway b/c last year's set up was a little worrisome. We had it in a bucket of rocks. It worked somewhat, but it fell over a couple times, and that just sucks!

So, I want to make a little hole in the concrete big enough to stick the pole for the clothes line in. Anyone know how to do this? Do I have to hire someone? What about drainage? Any other ideas?

[Alkenny]

I don't know how you would go about that, but I was just wondering why the driveway? If it's just because of optimum sunlight, you don't need direct sunlight to dry or "sun" things out.

Having it in the drive...is the whole drive concrete or stone? If it were stoned, it would be easier to clear and dig a hole, but if it's concrete I don't know if you could do it yourself or not. Hmmmm....

[fremontmama]

Well, it has to be the driveway b/c there really isnt any other place to do it on our lot. Our lot is only about 2350sf. The front "yard" is about 5 feet of flower garden in the front of our house, then the sidewalk, then the parking strip, which we have filled with raised beds for gardening. The side yard is about 3 feet next to a fence that borders the parking lot for the condos next to us, we turned that tiny bit of space into a rock garden. The back yard is super tiny as well and is now all patio that dh finished a couple years ago. It's all really pretty patio stone patterns with bamboo on one side and a picnic table and a chimenea. To also add an umbrella clothes line to that back yard just wouldn't work, it's way too small. It also is bordered by a lot of trees from our neighbor's lot that hang over into our yard, which is fine, b/c it makes a cozy canopy.

The driveway is really ideal. It's pretty long (if we had 2 cars, we could park both in it) So there is plenty of room to move and it doesnt really clutter things up, or at least aesthetically, I dont mind it being in the driveway.

It is a concrete driveway. So it would mean making a hole in the concrete somehow. I was thinking it was possible we would have to at the very least rent some sort of machinery to do that, but I really don't know how that would work.......

[julie anne]

Have you thought about using a cast iron umbrella stand? Also, when I was young, my dad had made a concrete block holder with a pipe in the center to hold the umbrella stand in. I don't remember it ever tipping over in the wind, and the nice thing about it was that it could be moved around to take advantage of a sunny spot (it was super heavy, though)

[fremontmama]

hmmm...an umbrella stand! that's a good idea! the concrete block thing sounds like more than I can handle, but it's a thought....

[moonrunner]

I think this is gonna be a guy kinda answer/solution. I had a concrete pad at my last house . My dad got a square plate of steel and a short length of pipe welded to the center of the steel plate - like an unbrella stand only not decorative. He took 4 long screws with hex heads, drilled holes in the concrete with a special drill bit, then inserted the screws through the holes in the steel plate then into the cement pad. I could take the clothes line out to the "stand" but I couldn't move the "stand". an umbrella stand may work but only if you can anchor it. the width of the clothes line with clothes on it is too heavey for the width of a basic umbrella stand. My current clothes line had instructions to dig a hole, add cement and water, then set a hollow pipe in that for the clothes line center pole to fit over. Is there a small section of dirt near the end of the drive way for that?

[Alkenny]

Originally Posted by moonrunner

My current clothes line had instructions to dig a hole, add cement and water, then set a hollow pipe in that for the clothes line center pole to fit over. Is there a small section of dirt near the end of the drive way for that?

I was thinking along those lines too. Maybe just right off the side of the driveway?

[fremontmama]

Well, there really isnt any space on either side of the driveway for mounting anything. I wish there was. We have about a foot of garden bed between the driveway and the house on one side and then about a foot and a half of garden between the driveway and the fence. My dh had originally mounted the clothesline on that spot, but our neighbor asked us to move it because our clothes were hanging over into her driveway and actually in the way when she tried to park My dh had hung clothes on the line by walking into her driveway for that side of the clothesline.

I was talking with dh about the whole thing this morning, and he is just going to go down the street today to the tool rental place and talk with the guys there about what he needs to make a little hole in the concrete and just do it that way. We'll see how it works, dh has some funny ideas sometimes.