Rotary clothes line/airer

wellsie82

Hi,

We're currently doing up our back garden and are looking at getting a rotary clothes line/airer

We've put a patio down this weekend and will be digging up the lawn and reseeding it later in the summer as we're extending it and the current "lawn" is far from flat

Anyway, I've seen a few rotary airers on the net this afternoon and I'm wondering how people fix them down to the ground?

My mum and dad used to have a small section of concrete with a hole in it where the rotary airer would go when it's in use and I like that idea. I know you can get covers for them but I wouldn't want to look at it out in the garden when there's nothing on it.

I've seen things like this http://www.minky.co.uk/index.php?page=product_details&cat_id=4&subcat_id=12&product_id=29 but how can it stay in the ground permantely if "no cement is required"? surely it would tip over with the weight of the wet washing :rolleyes:

I've also got my eye on this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140095895014&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D140095895014%26fvi%3D1 which comes with

Comes complete with FREE Fabric Weather Cover, Soil Spear and Ground Socket (all you need to start using this product).

, question on that is can the soil spear be cemented down and concealed in this concrete hole?

Sorry for waffling on, just very confused!

MrsMW

I have mine fixed in with one of those soil spears and it works fine most of the time. I do have a problem sometimes if the soil is very dry, we have clay soil which dries out quickly in summer and sometimes the whole lot falls over complete with spike and a lump of soil. When this happens I have to stop using it and put a traditional line up.

Pollybear

Ours is just in the lawn using the tube thingy (technical term) that came with the airer. It's never fallen over and sometimes I've had loads of washing on there. Mine is a four arm one so it's quite big.

We have clay soil too which cracks in prolonged dry weather but the airer has never fallen over (that's tempting fate!

wellsie82

so neither of you have anything cemented in? thats quite interesting as i assumed the sheer weight of the stuff on the airer would simply tip it out of the ground or at least make it lean over

thing is with the net you very often dont get to see a picture of all the things that come with the main item, grrr

dawnybabes

I also dont have it cemented in - we have a pipe in the ground and it goes in this ?

Today I have drove past a little shop and they had one outside with legs - now that one I'd expect to fall over (or take off)

tanith

I have always just bashed one of those spikes in the ground and its been fine , never tipped over .............. be careful when bashing it in.. I left it to OH when we moved house and the blasted thing was bashed in at an angle and I couldn't get it out to put it in straight.,... had to go buy another one from B & Q:rotfl: The did one with a hooky thing so you could pull the spike out again if you ever wanted to move it..... :T

Justamum

We don't have a lawn, just a paved area out at the back, so dh made a wooden square and filled it with cement and put a metal tube in it so we could slot the pole in. The first "foot" he made was too small so it fell over, so he made it bigger and it works fine.

In our previous house we did have a lawn, so he dug a hole, put in a tube and poured cement round it, then covered over the hole with the turf. Unfortunately he should have put cement under the tube too because when the dryer whirled round in the wind it "screwed" itself down into the ground, and the washing was getting a bit too low down for my liking!

BrownGirl

Ours is in a metal tube pushed into the ground too - our airer came with a plastic tube so we bought a metal one as it looked sturdier.

I take the airer inside for winter - its great fun playing 'hunt the hole' when it comes to putting it back up again cos the grass is usually that long its hidden it!

Stompa

Ours has a soil spear but is starting to lean to one side. Any ideas on how to straighten it?

I did it once by removing the spear and putting it in at a different spot - but it was a real PITA to both remove and reinsert.

I'm thinking of maybe hammering some sort of wedge down the side to straighten it - has anybody tried that approach?

Any other ideas?

Thanks

never_enough

Mine is just a soil spike in the lawn. I have a four sided airer & it holds about 4 loads of washing without any problems.
You may find an airer cheaper than that one on ebay. I don't think I paid £60 for mine & it'a good heavy duty one. Can't remember where it was from, either john lewis or argos.

adandem

Hi, We dug a smallhole and cemented in the tube. The airer was from Wilkinsons and was their deluxe model, it cost £29.99, it has 4 arms and is fairly large. When I opened it it turned out to be a Brabantia one which was about £50 evrywhere else. I don't know if they're still this type though.