Ok Gang the wife and I are talking about adding a 20ft flag pole to our house to fly old glory instead of the usual leaning off the side of the house type. Anyone else have one ?? Pros or cons you may have dicsovered over time with yours that may help inour decision?? We do not have a homeowners assoc so that wont be an issue.
Thanks
My parents had one, it was maintenance free. You may want to pay attention to when you are supposed to be at half staff though, some people might get mad if you don't.
If you fly a flag at night, please light it. A couple watts worth of white and yellow LEDs will last forever.
chaparral wrote: If you fly a flag at night, please light it. A couple watts worth of white and yellow LEDs will last forever.
And take it down in the rain.
We have ~a flagpole~, and we really like it.
Agree with the point of lighting at night. We tend to take ours down at dark but have a timer with light in case we're away. Also, I generally take ours down when it rains, but technically you don't have to. Most modern flag are "all weather" and the flag code rules allow flying a flag in the rain. We might leave it up if it's just "spritzing" for a while. We would never leave it up in heavy rain, high winds or other bad weather. Other basic rules: make sure it doesn't touch the ground and make sure it's higher than any other (non-US) flags nearby.
You don't have to fold it the official way every time you take it down, but it's nice to know how. ~Folding a US flag~. We like flying our flag and consider it an honor. 
Make certain you have good clearance.
I briefly worked at a brand-new dealership. After the three flagpoles (US, Texas, and Ford) were set, they bought garrison-size flags: 20' x 38'. The flagpoles were somewhat less than 20' apart.
One day, a strong, shifting wind hit. Flags and hardware entangled. Car salesmen were sent to correct it. Frivolity ensued.
Did you know that a garrison flag in a strong wind can lift a man and toss him a good ways?
There's never a video camera when you need one.
A guy in my neighborhood has a telescoping aluminum pole that cranks up and down. Pretty neat.
My neighbor has one. Whenever it is windy the cable/turnbuckles clang off the pole and drive me nuts. One of these days I'm going to cut it down.
Try not to get too flaggy about it.
At 20 ft long, and attached to the house, what's it made of? aluminum. Ground it for the distinct possibility of lightning strike. Also check your homeowner's policy for any clauses, etc...
A mast from a 16' Hobie cat is 29' tall. They can be found pretty cheap, one sold near me for $100 recently. They make a great flag pole.
Depending on how close you are to your neighbors, both how close your house is and how close you are in your relationships, I'd keep in mind that whole "flapping loose hardware" thing. I've lived near folks who had a flagpole that had loose cables/turnbuckles...in can be annoying.
And since you have had a flagpole already, I'm guessing you know when you need to replace the flags.
I used to live in Memphis and several (all?) the bigger fire trucks had flags on the rear. A few look like they were put on right after September 11, 2001....and then NEVER replaced. Nothing looks more disrespectful than a raggedy flag. And my father had an "all weather" nearly lifetime flag....it still got faded and tattered.
Thanks for all the replies everyone
I hadn't thought about the clanging hardware and it would annoy me also. We were just trying to get away from the standard mounting on the house and make a better presentation . I have already been looking at solar lights for night time presentations. We are very aware of the standards for the flag and will treat it with its proper respect. Any othe rideas please chime in.
well we are looking at both steel and aluminum. The only thing i may see wrong with steel is the possible rusting down the road on a white pole. Not to sure that would look good. Being in the lightning capitol of the world we are well aware of this possibility but no to sure on how to handle it. Maybe we should go with a shorter pole in the 15ft or so range.
Be sure that your flag is proportionally correct for the height of the pole. Nothing looks worse than a tiny flag atop a really high pole.
Woody wrote: Be sure that your flag is proportionally correct for the height of the pole. Nothing looks worse than a tiny flag atop a really high pole.
Or a giant flag on a stumpy pole.
You should definitely checkout [this flag canoe] and look at their flagpole collections. They have wall-mounted and ground standing options at pretty good prices when I shopped around. I used two of the 25 foot poles at my dealership.
My dad built his own flag pole at our summer home. He went into the woods and found a suitable tree.
In reply to f86sabjf :
Shop around slightly bent sailboat masts can be had for scrap metal prices. I'm not talking ugly bent but slightly kinked so the sail won't go up and down freely.
Then you can hoist a really decent sized Flag.
Please bring your flag down in the rain and light it at night.
aeronca65t said:We have ~a flagpole~, and we really like it.
Agree with the point of lighting at night. We tend to take ours down at dark but have a timer with light in case we're away. Also, I generally take ours down when it rains, but technically you don't have to. Most modern flag are "all weather" and the flag code rules allow flying a flag in the rain. We might leave it up if it's just "spritzing" for a while. We would never leave it up in heavy rain, high winds or other bad weather. Other basic rules: make sure it doesn't touch the ground and make sure it's higher than any other (non-US) flags nearby.
You don't have to fold it the official way every time you take it down, but it's nice to know how. ~Folding a US flag~. We like flying our flag and consider it an honor.
"When flags of two or more nations are displayed, they are to be flown from separate staffs of the same height. The flags should be of approximately equal size. International usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation in time of peace."
If you're talking non-nation flags, they can be the same height or lower. If same height, the US flag should be on the far left "first" pole. If different height, then the US flag should be higher.
More canoes with flag pole mounts
Great. Now I have Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta in my head.
LED Flag Pole Light. The Feds I worked for went to half mast on the same days that the State did, law enforcement (guys that raised & lowered the flag) said some times it wasn't worth putting up, it was at half mast for some reason almost every day.
93EXCivic said:chaparral wrote: If you fly a flag at night, please light it. A couple watts worth of white and yellow LEDs will last forever.And take it down in the rain.
When I was in 7th grade myself and another boy were in charge of the flag. Late 60's.
Our teacher, a catholic nun, was extremely strick with us. No leaving the classroom for any reason, bathroom break, whatever. When the recess bell rang we had to sit until the bell stopped ringing and she dismissed us. Start out before that and you sat in your desk for recess.
Except, if it started to rain, my partner and I would just interrupt the teacher and say we had to go get the flag.
She never hesitated to say "go!". Sometimes she saw the rain first and interrupted her teaching to tell us to get going.
I second the sailboat idea. There are hundreds of small boats here that the hull has disintegrated or the sail torn and they sell for cheap or even free. My friend has three boats that she got free because they either had no sail or a rotted hull.
Bury the mast in concrete, and if you're lucky it already has the rigging. Pulley at the top, cleat at the bottom. Swage some rings on it to hold the fabric and done.
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