The gist of our clothesline...
Supplies we needed for the metal clothesline
- Four feet of 4" PVC pipe already had extra from previous project
- Hacksaw to cut the PVC pipe
- Level
- Small shovel or trowel
- Crescent wrench to tighten U-bolts and quick links
- Pipe wrench to tighten all the metal fittings to the 1" pipe
- Quick dry cement $4.48 at Home Depot
- 1" galvanized steel end cap (4 of these) $2.18 each =$8.72
- 1" galvanized steel T (4 of these). $5.99 on Amazon with free shipping. One at the top of 8' pole and one at the bottom (prevent the pole from turning). $24.96
- 1" x 10' galvanized steel pipe $20.77 each (2 of these) $41.54
Pipe threader at Home Depot
Step-by-step instructions on how to build a metal clothesline
I. Dig two holes at least 2 feet deep and between 10-30 feet apart
Dig a hole at least two feet deep and bury your PVC pipe. The deeper it is, the less likely the frost will cause the pipe to heave over the winter. Make sure you keep the dirt outside the pipe as you want to eventually fill the inside with cement. I ended up having leftover 4' PVC pipe from my underground watering tubes when we grew our 6' tomatoes.
Dig a second hole 10-30 feet away from the first. Bury just like you did with the first PVC pipe.
II. How-to put together the clothesline T and extensions
III. Cement the bottom 2 feet inside the PVC underground
Actual clothesline supplies we used in conjunction with the rope
- Clothesline tighteners - one for every line. I needed four because we had three on top and one low one for the kids = $12 ($3/each)
- 2 u-Bolts for every line (5/16 in x 1-1/2 in x 2-5/8") so I needed eight = $32 ($4/each)
- 1/4" quick links one for each line so I needed four. = $4 ($0.93/each)