Use to lift electrical grids off the ground and safely away from human interaction, electric poles can benefit from being produced primarily out of wood. This is because pressure treated wood has a built in natural resistance to conductivity of high voltages. When used in conjunction with other devices installed to ensure safety, they’ll provide the ultimate amount of protection to those on the ground. Our poles conform to standards of the American National Standards Institute and the American Wood-Preservers’ Association. They also, as treated lumber products, must abide by your state’s retention level standards.
Retention and Pressure Treatment
Cobb Lumber makes sure our wood utility poles will conform to the retention rates appropriate for each type, size and location. Electric poles, for instance, require a higher retention level because these are in contact with the ground. Items that are not in contact with the ground, such as crossarms, require a lower retention level.
Another factor in treating lumber is wood type. By this, we don’t mean whether it’s oak or cherry. We mean whether the wood being treated is heartwood or sap wood. Sapwood soaks up wood preservatives more effectively than does heartwood, so the greater percentage a given wood has of sapwood, the more desirable it is for pressure treating.
This is why yellow southern pine is great for pressure treatment; it has more sapwood than heartwood. Now Douglas Fir has more heartwood than sapwood, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t suitable for pressure treating. It has its own strong points. Changing the medium that carries the preservative into the wood allow us to effectively pressure treat Douglas Fir.
Wood Utility Poles
Incorporating your state’s standard for retention that makes them safe, our wood utility poles can be ordered according to class, circumference, length, ground line distance, and minimum circumference 6 feet from butt. In lengths extending to 125 feet and top circumference minimums as small as 12 inches, these are useful as barn poles, deer fences, distribution or transmission electric poles, light poles and antenna poles.
Learn about our wood fencing.