How To Properly Plant A Treated Timber Pole

Ensuring upright wooden poles are secure and have sufficient drainage is vital. Our easy-to-follow guide can set you up for success.

Purchase the right timber pole

When considering what timber pole you’ll need, the first question to answer is what your intended construction is - for example, constructing a water-borne jetty can involve vastly different needs when compared to constructing a balcony or gazebo.

Selecting the right size timber pole, either to support weight to create an elevated structure, is crucial - and in turn will inform your material needs, such as how deep you will need to plant the timber pole into the ground and how much concrete you will need to purchase to secure it.

Which wood treatment is best?

R&B Timber Group specializes in growing, harvesting, processing, and pressure treating wooden poles under its own brand, called HardPole. We recommend purchasing timber that has undergone a CCA or Creosote pressure treatment in order to ensure that your next construction will meet exceptional standards in terms of its durability and longevity.

CCA (Chromated copper arsenate) a preservative containing copper, chromium and arsenic that is designed to extend the lifespan of timber poles. CCA-treated timber poles do not leak residue when planted into earth, and neither do they leave a residue or an unpleasant odour – this is in contrast to many other treatments which could bleed into earth or require regular maintenance in order to retain their efficacy.

Conversely, creosote is the most widely used wood preservative in the timber industry. R&B Group uses the full-cell method to treat cross arms, transmission poles, building poles and fencing poles.

Evaluate your climate and planting conditions

Before you plant your timber pole, it’s a good idea to evaluate your planting conditions to ensure that your eventual construction will stand the test of time.

Evaluating whether the planting ground is prone to shifting or to other disturbances, what soil makeup is present (whether it might be sandy or clay-like) can inform how deep you may need to plant a timber pole and how much concrete is advisable to secure it effectively.

Planting your wooden pole

When it comes to planting your timber pole, using the adage ‘half a meter for every meter’ is a good rule to follow when considering how deeply you may need to trench into the ground to secure it. However, the planting conditions of where you intend to secure the pole in question might influence this.

To securely plant a timber pole, you’ll first need to trench into the ground to secure your timber pole. From there, you’ll need to ensure that you have an adequate amount of concrete to secure it.

Use concrete effectively 

While some builders or contractors may simply reccomend pouring concrete at the base of the trench, placing the timber pole into the wet concrete, and then pouring additional concrete around it, this is a poor idea - as moisture can accumulate around the base of the pole and, without sufficient drainage, this can compromise its integrity in time.

Create a ‘collar’

Instead of either securing the base of the pole in concrete or simply pouring in concrete around it within a trench, the ideal approach to secure a treated timber pole is to create a ‘concrete collar’.

To do this, you’ll need to dig a trench, and then place your treated timber pole upright within it. From there, you can refill up to 30 centimeters of soil around its base and distribute it evenly. Once done, you can then pour concrete around the timber pole, and add a surface layer of soil when you reach surface level.

This enables moisture to drain effectively around the concrete collar and enables any accumulation of water to drain out below the collar - meaning that your construction will remain secure and is not likely to rot.

Ensure drainage

A final and important step is to ensure that water can effectively drain around your treated timber pole. Ideally, you’ll want to ensure that as your intended construction progresses, you do not concrete over or by other means underneath where your wooden pole would otherwise see water drainage as mentioned above.