Utility poles

Any one have any luck selling utility poles and if so how much? Thinking maybe for a light pole or similar.

Right now I have a 24 and 35 footer and should get a few more. If they are not worth much, I think I would rather chop them down to make corner posts.

Rick

I need about 10-12 to put up my building. But thats on the back burner at the moment. When I do see them for sale the seem to be sold by the foot? I'd try craigslist. There always seems to be someone wanting/needing them.

I Had a deal with a company that takes them down. At one time I had over 400 on the ground here. Used my wood mizer mill and cut lots of square 8X8 post and they sold well. Just the raw old post I sold a lot as cheap as 15 bucks each. Sometime cut some up and sold them as corner post as you said. I ended up kinda flooding the market around here for awhile but now 5 years latter still get a few calls wanting them.

Check with utility company.

My utility company gives em away. Because they are treated if they give them away. You have to sign an environmental document saying that they will be use as something like a fence post and not burned. If they can't give them away they have to jump through hoops or pay hazardous waste disposal. At least that's what they told me last year when I got some for free.

Rick

I've been trying to get a bunch to build a building. 65-80$ a piece for new ones.

They make great lifetime fence posts. Put a little extra in the ground and they will hold an 18 foot gate with no problem.

There is a big yard not far from me, the real good ones over 25 feet long are $5.00 per foot, it goes down from there depending on quality but the cheapest is $1.00 per foot for the cut off end pieces and busted poles. I would say the average for 8' - 16' to make good corner posts is $3.00 per foot, they sell a lot of them.

When the utility company rebuilt the line going by my house this summer they were almost begging for farmers to take the old ones. The recipient had to verbally promise not to burn them.

Thanks for all the input.

I am getting a lot of the replaced poles here too. Some are in average shape, the others I have gotten in the past look almost new. I had traded most in the past to buddys, but the have all they need so I was hoping I could make a little spending cash here and there.

Rick

Our power Co-op cuts the poles in several pieces before you can get them because of the liability of something happening if someone uses on as a "pole" and it would fall or break!

If they are old and dried out, they won't last long if you put them back in the ground. Atleast that has been my experience. If they are like new, they probly will last along time in the ground. Just not very often you run across a used one that is not all old and dried out.

that's likes selling bottled air most power companies here give them away. you just call and tell them you are coming. pull in the yard tell the man on the lift how many and what ones you want he puts them on your trailer and away you go. I guess you could sell them to some poor sap that does not know he can get them free.

Here they just leave them where they drop them. Usually the farmer either wants them or has a neighbor that does. Been one of the scavengers over the years. Don't know but I suppose if the land owner raises a stink they will haul them off. I see old ones sitting at another elect supplier's facility along with new ones.

I too thought that they would last forever but not so down here. They last a long time but not that long....maybe 20 yrs. I converted to steel set in concrete now that I can do portable welding, and no more of the problems that you have with wood posts including coming loose over time, cross stays, wire stretching and all that.

While we're on the subject, they quit using Creosote down here; currently using something else. Don't know how long that will last.

My coop pays a crew to come around every 10 years and inspect their poles plus do a treatment at ground level. Seems some kind of virus attacks the pole at ground level and is the reason for a lot of failures. They dig the dirt back about 10" down, apply some chemical, wrap the area in plastic, and put the dirt back. Then nail a tag to the pole to show they were there and when.

Mark

SIL is a lineman. I get all I want by just going and picking them up.

Good corner posts.

Gene

A number of years ago I bought around 300 used Iine poIes from our REA when they were renewing the Iines in the neighborhood.
90% of these poIes came with a 10' Iong x 8-10" thick treated stub poIe attached.I payed $5 for the poIes and $10 for the stubs deIivered
I used the Iatter to buiId my corraIs with and used them for corner and gate posts in the pastures.I have onIy 25 or so Ieft.
I had guy with a bandsaw miII come over to cut 150 of the the better Iong poIes into inch thick boards that i used to cIad my house with and for other projects.I saved a few reaIIy good poIes just in case i needed a Iong poIe for my yard overhead Iines
The rest of them i cut into firewood for the wood stove.
I never soId any poIes to neighbors, I wanted 50 c a foot but the sumb""ches thought they couId get them for free.