I coat the legs of my towers with roofing compound...black gooey stuff.
Your idea of treating the legs, then filling the concrete up to above
grade seems reasonable. I have actually removed a one yard base from the
ground using railroad jacks. It wasn't too hard.
73,
Dave, K4TO
W9zr@aol.com wrote:
>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
>
>
>List Sponsored by AN Wireless: AN Wireless handles Rohn tower systems,
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>
>-----
>FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
>Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
>Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
>Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
>
>
List Sponsored by AN Wireless: AN Wireless handles Rohn tower systems,
Trylon Titan towers, coax, hardline and more. Also check out our self
supporting towers up to 100 feet for under $1500!! http://www.anwireless.com
-----
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
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