Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Around The House). This thread is read-only.
My new-to-me house included a 16′ Tele Pole Telescoping Flagpole in the front yard.
My desire / plan was to continuously fly and American Flag 24/7/365 and according to the US Flag Code that requires illumination at night. A Annin Model 2710 3×5 Polyester Flag has been purchased for this purpose. Hopefully the polyester material will withstand super intense Florida sunshine fading the colors.
My property had concrete curbing installed using the Lil’ Bubba Hornet Curber around the front trees and shrubs, but not around the flagpole. Placement of upward facing landscape lighting at the flagpole would not last long w/ normal yard care and mowing. The thick / lush grass around the flagpole was cut in a perfect concentric circle, matching the diameter of the other front yard trees, with that grass turned into turf and relocated to a different spot on the property. (That was as-much fun as it sounds). A proper length cord was attached to the currently unused lower flag beaded retainer ring, so the circle diameter and concentricity would be spot on.
A contractor will be coming this week to install a matching circular curb around the flagpole. They blend-in color into the concrete. We will target matching the light tan color as seen against the driveway, but I fully expect the sprinkler water drawn from the iron-rich well to also stain this new curbing to a rust color, like the rest of the lawn curbing.
The REALLY FUN part was slicing and separating the Earth, w/ the super lush lawn, to bury the 16/2 Low Voltage Landscape Wiring. This included digging under the existing curbing, so all the lights may be placed in beds, instead of in the lawn. A one-foot long 3/4″ diameter Schedule 40 EMT conduit was placed so that an edging tool, used between the grass and the curbing, would not slice the wire. My Thor sledge hammer was used to compact the Earth under the curbing after the conduit / wire was installed.
One image shows the sliced and separated Earth tamped back together after the wire was installed deep, while a new nearby trench is being opened. My 8″ Tamper Tool was used to restore the sliced lawn to normal. My garden hose water was used to soften the lawn prior to tamping flat / closed. (Unfortunately I misplaced the tamping tool instruction sheet, so I had to “wing” it.) It is not possible to detect my prior ground manipulation after the lawn has been cut.
For the hundreds of thousands of wire I’ve installed, such as home wiring, the method I use is to stretch the wire out from the spool along the route to the far end, then pull it back to the spool, for an exact tailored length. That wouldn’t have worked here, with the trenches and the digging, so I layed the two circuits out, on top of the ground, marked w/ a Sharpie on white electrical tape and cut the two wires to length prior to installation. That method worked acceptably well, but is faaar from my preference going forward.
Usage of this 600W Dual Transformer Dewenwils Transformer was a first for me. I am very satisfied w/ this part. This has three low voltage taps on each transformer, for 12VAC, 13VAC and 14VAC. I used 12VAC for both circuits. The wiring was modified slightly on the left half, moving the 120VAC wiring to the bottom center cavity, transposing it w/ the low voltage wiring. On my setup both low voltage circuits are in the bottom exterior cavities and the high voltage is in the center cavity.
That 600W dual transformer part is HEAVY! For my installation I disassembled that part, removing the guts, permitting installation of the empty enclosure onto the house, getting everything nice, level and properly placed, prior to replacement of those heavy guts.
My setup includes a Tork TU40 Mechanical Timer and a Tork 2021 Photocell so that I could wire one circuit for dusk to dawn (American flag and front door) and the other circuit for dusk to 11PM (house and trees). I’ve used these parks previously and have been very happy w/ the results / longevity.
The installation image shows LOTS of nearby stuff. The house had an empty / deteriorated covered electrical box w/ a 120VAC wire switched at the interior front door. That was swapped to a new box w/ a GFCI receptacle and an in-use cover, in-case something like Christmas lights is ever plugged in at that location.
There is also second NEMA 5-15 GFCI receptacle. That was used as the path for powering this new electric stuff. The bedroom on the other side of the wall has an electric receptacle that was used to “steal” power for these exterior lights, by drilling through the 8x8x16 cinderblock wall.
Vertical Schedule 40 EMT conduit was used to route the low voltage wiring, from the transformer, through holes in the 12″ square pavers, into the ground.
A switch w/ exterior cover was installed to permit local shutting off power on the dusk to dawn circuit (w/o having to kill the interior circuit breaker). The dusk to 11PM circuit power may be killed using the mechanical timer switch.
These 12VAC Landscape Lights were used for the installation. I was VERY happy w/ these parts. They are sooo much better than the prior parts I used on a different installation. I REALLY liked the included connectors, they were fast, easy and good. The attachment to the ground spike was also easy, much better than the prior NLA parts.
Images are provided showing flagpole illumination, front door illumination and front yard / house illumination.
Flagpole Surrounded by Grass – Initial Condition
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Cutting Concentric Grass Circle
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Turf Removed (Relocated) from Circle
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Concrete Curbing at Driveway – Embedded Color Not Rust-Stained from Well Water Iron
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Two Wire Circuits Layed on Ground – Marked at Lamp Locations
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Cutting Turf – Expanding Wiring Trench – Also Prior Trench Tamped Flat
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Conduit Buried Under Curbing – Wiring Protection when Edging Lawn
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Dewenwils 600W Dual Transformer – Original Wiring
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Dewenwils Empty Enclosure – MUCH Easier to Mount
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Dewenwils Transformers / Circuit Breakers Removed from Enclosure
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Dewenwils Mounted Enclosure with Guts Replaced
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Tork TU40 Mechanical Timer and Tork 2021 Photocell Wired
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120VAC Wiring Completed
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Low Voltage Wiring also Completed
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Exterior Lighting Images
Flagpole and Garage Illuminated
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Front Entrance Illuminated
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Front Yard Illuminated
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Wow, that looks amazing. It’s crazy how much lights do for a yard. I love the flag setup, looks great. I have a flag up, but I didn’t have the run like you did. My is off the side of my house because I can not have a pole in my neighborhood. So mine was an easy install. Looks great, nice job.
wingless wrote:
On 6/7/2024 at 8:08 PM, wingless said:My property had concrete curbing installed using the Lil’ Bubba Hornet Curber around the front trees and shrubs, but not around the flagpole. Placement of upward facing landscape lighting at the flagpole would not last long w/ normal yard care and mowing. The thick / lush grass around the flagpole was cut in a perfect concentric circle, matching the diameter of the other front yard trees, with that grass turned into turf and relocated to a different spot on the property. (That was as-much fun as it sounds). A proper length cord was attached to the currently unused lower flag beaded retainer ring, so the circle diameter and concentricity would be spot on.
A contractor will be coming this week to install a matching circular curb around the flagpole. They blend-in color into the concrete. We will target matching the light tan color as seen against the driveway, but I fully expect the sprinkler water drawn from the iron-rich well to also stain this new curbing to a rust color, like the rest of the lawn curbing.
Flagpole Surrounded by Grass – Initial Condition
[External image (live.staticflickr.com), not copied]
Cutting Concentric Grass Circle
[External image (live.staticflickr.com), not copied]
Turf Removed (Relocated) from Circle
[External image (live.staticflickr.com), not copied]
The contractor came an installed the new matching concrete curbing at my flagpole, permitting me to finish that project.
The Lil’ Bubba curbing machine is cool. It is a two person operation, with one person shoveling into the hopper, while the other person controls the machine to follow the marks on the ground.
Because mine is a circle, the machine only goes so far, then the rest is completed manually, using shaped trowels. There is also hand smoothing, for the surface cracks when the curbing is initially extruded.
Prior to curbing crew arrival there was a last / final preparation by me. This included hand removal of grass clippings, collected at the depressed perimeter. I also hand-extracted any small weeds that started growing.
The surface was again hand tamped / compacted w/ my 8″ square tamping tool.
The contractor arrived, mixed up a very dry concrete mix, then extruded the circle.
My existing concrete curbing has a repeating colored swirl pattern. The contractor dipped is pattern roller into color dust and pushed that tool into the fresh concrete to emboss that pattern onto the new curb so it matches.
Several days later the contractor returned to spray acrylic coating onto the fresh concrete.
All of my garden beds have rock mulch. I wanted the center surface higher prior to laying out the rock mulch, so I added four bags of play sand first.
The sand was covered w/ a layer of weed tarp, then the rock mulch. Note all of that rock mulch, about three 5 gallon buckets full, was all previously subterranean, mixed in w/ dirt, weeds and roots. All was dug up, sifted and washed from a different garden bed that was being restored.
There was random leftover concrete attached to the grass perimeter. All that was removed by hand, mostly by feel, then clean dirt fill added around that exterior perimeter, so that grass may grow against this new curbing.
Landscape Lighting Taped Out of Way
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Contractor Painted Guide Spots
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Mixing Up Concrete
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Lil’ Bubba Machine Laying Curbing
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Hand Rolling Colored Pattern
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Spraying Protective Acrylic Coating
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Adding Drain
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Protecting Drain w Lava Rock
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Raising Height w Play Sand
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Adding Weed Tarp, Tucked Around Perimeter w/ Paint Scraper
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Clean Rock Mulch and Clean Dirt Fill Installed
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Wow, that came out awesome. Nice job. Makes everything pop.
wingless wrote:
On 6/28/2024 at 7:41 AM, wingless said:All of my garden beds have rock mulch. I wanted the center surface higher prior to laying out the rock mulch, so I added four bags of play sand first.
The sand was covered w/ a layer of weed tarp, then the rock mulch. Note all of that rock mulch, about three 5 gallon buckets full, was all previously subterranean, mixed in w/ dirt, weeds and roots. All was dug up, sifted and washed from a different garden bed that was being restored.
Raising Height w Play Sand
[External image (live.staticflickr.com), not copied]
Adding Weed Tarp, Tucked Around Perimeter w/ Paint Scraper
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Clean Rock Mulch and Clean Dirt Fill Installed
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One thing I noticed, that eventually broke through my VERY thick brain crust, is that ONLY this rock mulch bed gets ZERO weeds.
ALL of the other rock mulch beds get VERY few weeds, that are removed by hand extraction.
All of the other rock mulch beds are identical: subterranean weed removal; weed tarp covered w/ clean rock mulch.
THE ONLY step different on THIS rock mulch bed is the layer of play sand covering the clean dirt, under the weed tarp.
ALL rock mulch beds get identical maintenance. All get gentle backpack grass trimming blowing clean (by me) after landscaper leaves to keep from being filled over time.
Probably going to use that play sand on more rock mulch beds to further explore the elimination of weeds.
Good to know. I tried to lay the weed barrier down and eventually weeds came through. Going to try the play sand this spring. Thanks