How to Determine Pole Depth of Pre-Existing Pylon Sign

[JTBoh]

OP might check in city archives, which is time consuming and a pain in the a$$. The city will ALWAYS claim that "they can't find it", but it should exist somewhere. That somewhere is usually a box buried under decades of more boxes. Calculate that into your permitting time.

PS - Get a shovel

 

[Marlene]

I know this is off topic a bit... But what tool do you use to get the "actual square footage" of the Army's hat? Been looking for something like that for years.

good question, what do you use to get the actual square footage on odd shapes?

 

[Rick]

I use Illustrator with CadTools, in the Cadtracker window, there is the information for area, I think it’s been around since 1997

For Corel, you can use Corel Designer or...

For Corel Draw, someone developed a macro years ago, the updated version can be found on this thread

https://community.coreldraw.com/tal...phics-suite-x8/53163/calculate-square-footage

 

[petrosgraphics]

if this was a new store location for Arbies, the engineering was done by the the company that manufactured the sign. my experience has been, they ship everything as a complete kit. everything spec. out. it is more than likely a pour with rebar frame and possibly 1"-1.5" threaded rod for your anchor bolts. dig around the base to see how wide and how long the cement base is.

 

[Robin Canaday]

If I were you, I'd stick with a cabinet design that (once all the math was done) had the same load as the original cabinet. Then move onto more likely projects, if that was not acceptable to the customer. I hope you didn't promise them this cabinet .

 

[Sandman]

Robin nailed it. Reduce your sign design to match the size of the Arby's sign or pass on the job. I do my own engineering on these before handing it to the engineer for a stamp. First, I doubt if anyone is going to over engineer a base and pole structure very much beyond the wind load requirement for that area. Just one step up in pole thickness or diameter could add hundreds of dollars to the cost on a sign that size. Extra concrete would add even more. It just doesn't make sense that anyone would add hundreds and hundreds of dollars to the sign cost for no good reason. Wind loads are calculated on sign height, width, and square area. This will determine the pole diameter as well as the thickness of the steel. Then there is the base. Bases can vary widely in shape, depth, and footprint. Concrete bases can go straight down or flair outward toward the bottom. The twisting wind load on a single pole for a wider sign than the original is another consideration when figuring the structure. Putting a bigger sign than what was there before could be a disaster waiting to happen. You don't know what's underground but the first step would be to get the wall thickness of the steel poles and the height of each part and have an engineer do the calculations to see if the steel would even pass for a bigger sign. If it doesn't you don't even have to wonder what the foundations specs are.

 

[Big Rice Field]

Area on odd shapes can be calculated using CAD software like "perimeter" in AutoCAD. But city planners like the simple rectangle method. Do not expect counter people to be math whizzes. They are usually the offspring of city officials.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Sandman nailed it! The quickest and easiest calculation you can make is determining whether the steel will support the new sign. In any case, in most municipalities you will need a stamped engineers drawing, but you can easily calculate this yourself with fairly good accuracy using the formulas in Peter Horsley's "Sign Structures and Foundations", which has been around for a long time. I find this is good enough for estimating, and when I get the job I'll pay the engineer to review my drawings. The engineer's job is simplified if I have already spec'd out the structure (he/she has to run fewer calculations if I have already done the design), and in most cases they can save you some material costs (value engineering). If you want to learn more about engineering sign structures, I would recommend Benjamin Jones' "Engineering Sign Structures" (not a light read, but if you have a basic understanding of trig and can work through some algebra it is not too difficult to understand).

A more recent phenomenon is obtaining FAA clearances for structures over 20' that are within 20,000' (approx. 3.79 miles) of an airport runway, which will likely trigger a study in most cities ( https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/portal.jsp ). You will need clearances for both your structure and to deploy your equipment. An even newer development is clearing radio frequencies used to communicate with remote signs. You will definitely want to clear those hurdles before you commit to a project. These studies don't cost anything (other than your time), but you may likely need them to get your permit (yes, I agree... does that mean I need an FAA study to put a ladder up to clean my gutters? Well, you don't need a permit for that, but I digress... ).

And don't forget the crane operators certification ( https://www.signs.org/cranes ).

Today's more savvy city planners and inspectors are requiring much more to get a permit than they used to. The old-school sign guys are getting run out of business. Some great opportunities here!

 

[spectrum maine]

Hey everyone,

Would anyone know how to determine the depth of a pre-existing pole sign? I've spoken with the city hall but they don't have any permits or documents of the sign. I need the pole depth so i can provide it to our engineer so we can get the appropriate lightbox size.

Thanks in advance,

- Steve

HIRE AN EXCAVATOR
DIG AROUND PERIMETER
IF NOT BIG ENOUGH POUR HIGH STRENTH CONCRETE IN HOLE W/ REBAR STITCHED TO OLD BASE

 

[kcollinsdesign]

I calculated the surface area of the proposed sign to be approx. 33% more than the Arbys sign. Combine the increased area with a higher center of pressure and the ballast requirement will be significantly more than that required by the original sign. If you could decrease the area of the new sign to <150 sq. ft. and drop the overall height by around 5' you should be ok if the original base was designed correctly (I am not an engineer and I did these calculations quickly).