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[TowerTalk] Looking for Ideas for Preserving Tower Legs

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Looking for Ideas for Preserving Tower Legs
From: W9zr@aol.com (W9zr@aol.com)
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 15:33:06 EST
I am running into a problem with my tower legs starting to rust and I am 
looking for some ideas.

Background:

When I installed an 80 foot Rohn 45 tower 8 years ago I anticipated moving 
within 4 or 5 years.  I installed it in 1 yard of concrete and left the top 
of the concrete 6 inches below grade and filled in dirt on top of the 
concrete.  I did this so that when I moved I did not have to deal with the 
buyers probable complaint of a concrete pad in the backyard.  In the past I 
would just cut off the legs and backfill dirt and nobody knew it was there.   
I realized then that if I did not move in 5 years I would have to do 
something to prevent the tower legs from rusting as they would be in contact 
with the moist soil.  BTW I did use sand and pea gravel at the bottom of the 
legs for proper intrenal drainage.

8 years have passed and it looks like I am not moving anytime soon.  So much 
for the best laid plans.  As a result I removed some dirt and closely 
inspected the tower legs and, while the galvanizing is gone, they appear to 
be solid but certainly have a fair amount of surface rust as you would expect.

My initial thought was to sand and paint the legs and then pour a concrete 
cap to a level approx 6 inch above grade.

Another thought was to sand and paint the legs and then coat them with 2 part 
epoxy.  After that I could wrap a layer of rubber self vulcanizing tape and 
then vinyl tape similiar to we  do for leak proof coax connections.  With 
this setup could I just backfill the dirt and forget about the concrete?

This is new territory for me but I bet someone out there in towertalk land 
has had this problem and come up with a good solution.  I am all ears!!

73 

Randy


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