How to attach fold-down clothesline to metal fence posts?

[SyedAhmed]

Hi Team.

I'd like to install a fold-down clothesline to the fence shown below:

It's a colorbond fence which sits on concrete sleepers. The width of the sleepers is 2.4m, and the distance between the edge of each post is approximately 2400mm as well.

I've found a clothesline that I like, and the distance between mounting holes is 2260mm.

Now, I appreciate that while the fence panels themselves will hold the weight of the clothesline, adding a few loads of wet clothes is basically a disaster waiting to happen.

I also don't particularly want to install mounting posts bolted into the concrete slab below either.

What I'm thinking of doing is inserting timber strips - perhaps a 90mm x 22mm decking pine piece into the rail in front of the fence panel, screwing that into the rail, and then screwing the clothesline mounting bracket into the pine.

Any thoughts on whether this will work? I'm worried that although the timber pieces will help hold the clothesline up, the shear forces through them may cause the rails to bend and eventually fail.

I suppose the other alternative is to screw in some framing pine to the posts and then screw the clothesline brackets onto that.

All advice is much appreciated.

[JacobZ]

Hi @SyedAhmed,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

I'd say the framing pine is the better of the two options. This is structurally graded timber whereas the decking pine is not rated in the same way to support loads vertically. 

Weighing up the potential risk of damage to the fence from under supporting the clothesline and having a personal tendency to over engineer when dealing with the unknown, I think this is the better option of the two.

Ultimately, either option will support the clothesline better than the fence panel, but my thinking is always better to be safe than sorry.

Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Jacob 

[SyedAhmed]

Thanks for the helpful reply Jacob. My gut instinct was the same - that structurally graded timber was the way to go.

I have a follow-up question: would it suffice to attach two 90x45 framing pine posts to the fence posts, running from the floor to the top of where each clothesline mounting bracket will be, or should I also run a piece of timber across horizontally and attach it to the top of each of the timber posts? It would add some rigidity to the structure, but the posts will be screwed into the metal fence posts and I'm not certain if there's any other benefit?

[MitchellMc]

Adding a horizontal member could assist @SyedAhmed. It might add some support and, at least, help evenly distribute the load of the washing between both uprights.

Mitchell

[SyedAhmed]

Great, thanks @MitchellMc, will add the horizontal support.

One more question please: what would be an appropriate outdoors paint product to use? I'd like to paint it all in Monument so that it matches the fence and sleepers and "recedes" into the background as much as possible?

[MitchellMc]

Any exterior paint would be fine, @SyedAhmed, but I recommend Dulux Weathershield, which can be tinted to Monument.

Mitchell

[SyedAhmed]

Great, thank you. Will post an update once I receive the clothesline and have put it up.

On a related note, which screws are recommended to attach the timber posts to the metal posts? Timber is 45mm thick and the steel posts are ... well, the regular folded metal fence posts.

[EricL]

Hello @SyedAhmed 

I propose using Zenith 10G x 65mm Galvanised Countersunk Head Metal Screws. My best advice is to drill pilot holes on the timber piece to make it easier to drill into the steel. I recommend a gap of 300mm per screw along the length of the timber post. 

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[SyedAhmed]

Thanks Eric!