Clotheline options on bedrock?

I've moved, and am missing having a clothesline (right now i dont even have a washer or a dryer!).  It's a very humid location, and things take forever to dry without tons of sun and wind.

The spot that makes the most sense for a clothesline (near a door to basement, in the sun, in prevailing winds,  etc) has about 6" of soil over bedrock.

My favorite clothesline style is the pulley types, with a close second to the umbrella style.

Irritatingly, There are no trees near enough where i want the clothesline to anchor one to it. Tons of trees elsewhere if i was willing to walk a hundred feet uphill! I could anchor one end to my garage. I don't want to anchor to my house, which is brick. If i was willing to walk that far, i'd also have much deeper soil, too!

Any ideas for how to anchor a post for a clothesline end, or for an umbrella clothesline,  over bedrock? Any alternative clothesline ideas?

I am eyeing some more free standing racks, but i find they fall over in a stiff wind..

I wonder if a rock-jack style pole would be a creative choice?

https://permies.com/t/238719/Rockjack-Trellis

I'm still working on my idea for a hops trellis that is anchored with rocks.

A couple of gabions where you want them. Put a pole in each.

I don't see a picture of what I want. Gabions are basically shapes made of wire to hold rocks. The easy ones are a chunk of chain link fence made into a cylinder, filled with rocks.

It is not as natural as I would like, but I have seen a lot of people make fence posts with vehicle rims welded to a post or even tires with cement. Maybe something along those lines?

My clothes goes from my house to a tree so it requires no poles.

An eye bolt attached to the porch was all that was needed besides the rope.

I assume a pulley type line could work for that.

If the trees are 100 ft away, that is a reasonable distance for one end of the the line.  Connect one end to the house, and the other to near the base of a tree....maybe a foot or two off the ground.  That should give you reasonable space to hang clothes. Sag in the line can bee taken up with poles to prop the line. The other idea presented here are excellent as well.  

Know anyone with a rock drill? We've used a rock drill bit about the size of the piece of rebar we wanted to drive into the hole (different sizes depending on what the rebar needed to keep in place). Drill the hole, put in the rebar, then slide a piece of pipe over the rebar because A) it's prettier and B) it's easier to attach things to. You could bolt a pulley to the pipe, or do a fancy T-shape and have 2 pulleys like my Mom had. Two short lines worked for the space she had.

We went for a platform to stand on so the line was higher off the ground so the sag wasn't an issue.

More irritated searching later, it is possible to buy 250 ft clothes line!

My local hardware store only has 150 ft line (75 ft by the time you put it on a pulley), and the other store i went to only had 200 ft clothesline and plastic pulleys. My line will be about 110 ft, to go between my garage and the nearest tree.  

So!  If i purchase parts from 3 stores (why, if you are a store selling 250 ft clothesline, do you not sell 8" pulleys? Why, if you sell 8" pulleys, do you not sell a turnbuckle?) And borrow a ladder (the tree is up-slope) i can get a very good heavy duty line that hopefully won't sag horribly, albeit one at a rather odd angle.

Still doesnt solve the problem if someone else was working with bedrock  - may i recommend planting trees 30 years ago in a convenient location?

My experience with pulley lines has been that they break things they are attached to and have a lot of force/lever action at the base due to their height.

I  really liked the gabion or concrete idea, but they'd have to be massive to not topple over for a pulley line. Setting a rotary post (which hss less single direction tension on it)  in a big concrete block would probably be the best bet, as you'd need less concrete.

If my clothesline doesnt work or the tree breaks (its not a particularly healthy specimin) i think i'll try the rotary clothesline in concete or a gabion basket idea and move the clothesline elsewhere for those really heavy a few times a year things, like duvets and tents.

Thank you everyone!

You could get a freestanding drying rack.  They make many now that are quite large.  

Aimee Bacon wrote:You could get a freestanding drying rack.  They make many now that are quite large.  

They tip over in the wind and the clothes lands in the dirt. We do put racks outside occasionally, but on a calm day in a wind-sheltered spot. Catie George is in a humid area, so she *needs* wind or at least airflow to get the clothes to dry.

@ Catie George: how are you going to attach the two pulleys?  Our tree end was a wire rope around the tree, but putting some blocks of wood so the wire rope can't cut into the tree would be good.  The garage end will need the stress well distributed. My sister had a phone wire from the pole to the house, held at the house end by a hook into wood and it pulled right out of the wood. I fixed it... it won't be pulling out again!

Jay Angler wrote:[ Our tree end was a wire rope around the tree, but putting some blocks of wood so the wire rope can't cut into the tree would be good.  

It's also amazing how quickly a clothes line gets enveloped by a tree it is attached to.

I'm interested in all the solutions proposed here, as I am contemplating a new outdoor clothes line.  I have shallow silty soil over rock. It is a little deeper in the front garden, but is so soft any support pole quickly develops a lean. I quite fancy the gabion idea. I have been building one for a bird perch, so if that is successful I may try another for the clothes line. I quite like the rocks in basket look and it gives a well drained bed or pile of rocks habitat too.

Jay Angler wrote:

Aimee Bacon wrote:You could get a freestanding drying rack.  They make many now that are quite large.  

They tip over in the wind and the clothes lands in the dirt. We do put racks outside occasionally, but on a calm day in a wind-sheltered spot. Catie George is in a humid area, so she *needs* wind or at least airflow to get the clothes to dry.



@ Catie George: how are you going to attach the two pulleys?  Our tree end was a wire rope around the tree, but putting some blocks of wood so the wire rope can't cut into the tree would be good.  The garage end will need the stress well distributed. My sister had a phone wire from the pole to the house, held at the house end by a hook into wood and it pulled right out of the wood. I fixed it... it won't be pulling out again!

Yup - stuff on my sheltered free standing rack is taking a day and a half to dry!

Honestly, was thinking of just lag bolting into the tree.  It's a somewhat unhappy spruce and i dont want to lash that tightly around it, but my experience is trees heal over small wounds pretty well.

Agree on the garage end - will be bolting through a stud. The siding is cheap vinyl and I wouldnt trust it to hold up a string of christmas lights!

The clothesline at my mom's couldnt handle anything heavy, or it would break the wall of the ancient wood shed it was attached to  and her neighbours clothesline, on an old telephone pole broke last year at the base - clothes lines put a lot of stess on things!

I know this is not what you prefer, but I grew to love our large Amish wood drying rack. It folds for storage. I can even place it on our porch where it gets enough sun, but not too much if drying dark clothing (or if there is a sudden downpour...). I can also place it by the woodburning stove in the winter if needed. In fact, we ended up taking down our existing clothesline setup. Our rack had held up well for several years now.

Edit: I didn't see your last comment. I don't dry a ton at a time, so the large rack is plenty - different situation, obviously. Also, less humid here, at least compared to rest of Southeast. I definitely am not able to dry sheets or towels. Our original setup consisted of one wooden post and other end attached to a tree. The post wasn't dug super far in (when we dug it out), but it held up in our clay, or at least seemed to. The previous owner was the person who put it in.

People bust holes for fence posts into bedrock all the time... You might dig a hole into the bedrock, and cement in a post. A strong digging bar might handle it just fine. Sure it depends on the nature of the bedrock. Limestone breaks up easier than granite.

For what it's worth, a couple years ago, I used a pick and shovel to dig a pond into bedrock. It helped that me and my brother worked together, then we could take turns showing off our strength.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote: For what it's worth, a couple years ago, I used a pick and shovel to dig a pond into bedrock. It helped that me and my brother worked together, then we could take turns showing off our strength.

One of our neighbours did that, only they used dynamite, called it a quarry and sold the gravel. It does hold the winter rain long enough to use it to water their big corn field during the summer drought.

I think you are thinking normal drying racks when you say they tip over.  The big ones that are more like traditional clotheslines really take a lot before they tip over and you can always way down the bottoms with concrete blocks, sandbags, etc.  
Like this:
https://freudenthalmfg.com/misc/clotheslines.php

Aimee Bacon wrote:... The big ones that are more like traditional clotheslines really take a lot before they tip over and you can always way down the bottoms with concrete blocks, sandbags, etc.    Like this: https://freudenthalmfg.com/misc/clotheslines.php

Wow - I wonder if that could be easily bodged up out of an old trampoline frame or similar? It does need reasonably flat ground.

It also isn't a pulley type where you can stand on something elevated and hang things that would otherwise be hitting the ground. I have a double indoor clothes line and deal with big things by hanging them in a loop with each end on a different line and the centre at the bottom. This gives more air movement than anything that's hung half on each side of a single line.

I have seen bases for umbrella shaped sun shades, that are plastic and can be filled with water to make it heavy. Could such a thing be used for an umbrella style drying rack?

If you feel unable to get into the bedrock to anchor (it sounds like you'd be happiest with the outcome if you can figure out that solution), you could make one with a vertical post and a wide "plus" or "X" shape on the bottom, as wide as you need for stability. Maybe cross brace too. It would be somewhat portable which you may learn to appreciate. Also, a nightmare if you have to mow.

We have a windy location and our clothesline is a very durable umbrella style. I love it! It collapses and spins so we can stand in one spot to fill it. An umbrellas style, though not your favorite, requires only one anchor, no wobbly trees. You could go around with a stake and poke it into the ground in several places to see if you have a spot without so much rock.

Rebecca Norman wrote:I have seen bases for umbrella shaped sun shades, that are plastic and can be filled with water to make it heavy. Could such a thing be used for an umbrella style drying rack?

I've seen those tip over with just an umbrella in a gust, so I don't think I'd want to trust them for a load of wash myself. However things like that come in different sizes and if it was big enough it might work. Add some bags of sand to the top and that would help too!

Pearl Sutton wrote:A couple of gabions where you want them. Put a pole in each.

I don't see a picture of what I want. Gabions are basically shapes made of wire to hold rocks. The easy ones are a chunk of chain link fence made into a cylinder, filled with rocks.

Hi all, I put on my MacGyver thinking cap, and came up with this which is not too complicated.
These gabions look interesting, if you were to dig down to the Bedrock then poor some cement in the hole  shallow or deep shouldn't matter, then set this gabion in the wet cement in the hole, with a commercially bought steel clothesline pole stuck in the center, then just pour wet concrete into the gabion and let it spill out into the hole and the whole mass should mount itself to the Bedrock, if not I'm thinking it's probably heavy enough to just sit there by itself.
After seeing that little Rock filled wire box or gabion, that's what I would do.
Also the Gabby on could be either round or square depending upon your sense of aesthetics.
Just make sure the poles are where you want them cuz you're not going to be moving these things!

With the extra long (250 ft) clothesline, i managed to get it up and hung. I even have leftover clothesline for... something. You can see from the photos that the spruce tree is rather sad. It (like all my other spruces) has a fungal infection,  and it's being eaten alive by grape vines. I'll clear the grape vines out... eventually. I need to get/borrow loppers on a pole, or a pole saw...

I used two types of tighteners since it is so long. A typical winch style joiner on the clothesline itself, which still left it very saggy even when  i could no longer tighten it. I would not be happy with just this one. Then a turnbuckle behind the pulley at the garage which made a huge difference.  I still have more adjustment space left on it, for when the clothesline eventually stretches. I love that it goes up hill, and starts fairly low to the ground by my garage. It should be fairly easy to load, but still allow things to not flap against the ground.

Now i just need to handwash more clothes, and try it out!

Congratulations on having a functional clothesline!

A big issue with a long clothesline is that as you load it, the all the "wire stretch" submits to gravity and the center of the line will droop.

Do you have what is called a "clothesline spacer"? We have both a plastic and a metal version. The plastic has more resistance, the metal one with rollers has more risk of getting tangled in stuff - particularly if it's windy. I still recommend a couple of them if you're going to dry big things or heavy things, as it will distribute the weight over both wires more evenly.

Jay Angler wrote:Congratulations on having a functional clothesline!

A big issue with a long clothesline is that as you load it, the all the "wire stretch" submits to gravity and the center of the line will droop.

Do you have what is called a "clothesline spacer"? We have both a plastic and a metal version. The plastic has more resistance, the metal one with rollers has more risk of getting tangled in stuff - particularly if it's windy. I still recommend a couple of them if you're going to dry big things or heavy things, as it will distribute the weight over both wires more evenly.

I do! I have the plastic s clip style which tend to fling themselves around the yard. Open to other options i don't need to go hunting for in the grass.

With the line up and the first tiny load of clothes up, now i'm mulling finding a few pavers for the space under where i'll stand to hang clothes to keep me out of the dirt.

Catie George wrote: I do! I have the plastic s clip style which tend to fling themselves around the yard. Open to other options i don't need to go hunting for in the grass.

Drill a hole for a leash and a carabiner? I generally preferred the metal ones from memory, but we don't have a sunny enough spot for that type of clothesline as much as I would love to.

With the line up and the first tiny load of clothes up, now i'm mulling finding a few pavers for the space under where i'll stand to hang clothes to keep me out of the dirt.

Absolutely - you're worth dry/non-muddy feet!