Longacre Corten Steel Post and Festoon Installation Eight Post 70 Metre

Weathering steel that rusts to a stable orange brown and then stops. Give it two wet seasons before you judge it, and keep it off pale paving because the first year of run off will stain.

Everybody wants festoon lighting over a lawn and almost nobody has two walls in the right places. This is the answer: freestanding posts with proper ground anchors, a tensioned catenary between them and the festoon clipped to the wire. The posts are set in galvanised ground anchors rather than concreted in, which means they can be taken out and the lawn made good in an afternoon if you ever change your mind or move house. Every span is sized so the sag looks deliberate, and every post is cross braced at the head because a 40 metre run under tension pulls harder than people expect.

Specification

• Dimensions: 8 posts at 3.2m above ground, 70m total festoon run
• Materials: corten steel posts, 3mm stainless catenary, rubber jacketed LED festoon
• Finish: weathered finish, develops over two seasons
• Light source: 70 x 1W LED festoon lamps at 1 metre centres
• Light output: about 5600 lumens total
• Colour temperature: 2700K very warm white
• Beam angle: 360 degrees, omnidirectional
• Power: 230V from a single outdoor socket, RCD protected
• Ingress protection: IP65, jet proof, suitable for open garden use
• Cable: 70m of festoon plus a 10m outdoor supply lead
• Warranty: 5 years on the fitting, 2 years on the LED and driver
• Suits a large lawn, a kitchen garden or a paddock edge
• Rigged height: 3.2 metres, above head height with the sag allowed for
• Ground anchors: galvanised driven anchors, no concrete needed
• Sag: designed at 5 per cent of span, which is what looks right
• Dimmable on a trailing edge dimmer
• Delivery: on a pallet, kerbside
• Weight: approximately 208.0 kilograms

In the box

• 8 x corten steel posts, 3.6m long for 3.2m above ground
• 8 x galvanised driven ground anchors with wedge bolts
• 94m of 3mm stainless catenary wire
• 16 x turnbuckles, wire rope grips and thimbles
• 70m of rubber jacketed LED festoon with lamps fitted
• 8 x spare lamps
• 10m outdoor supply lead with a moulded IP67 plug
• A setting out plan and a post spacing card

Installation

Festoon is heavier than it looks and the mistake everyone makes is hanging it off the cable itself. Run a stainless catenary wire between your fixing points, tension it with a turnbuckle until it is firm rather than tight, then clip the festoon to the wire every 500mm so the weight is carried by the wire and not by the cable cores. Allow a gentle sag of about 5 per cent of the span, both because it looks right and because it gives the wire somewhere to go on a cold night when everything contracts.

When to buy

Garden lighting is bought in spring and installed in a hurry. It is much easier to dig a cable run in February when the borders are bare and the ground is soft than in May when everything is in leaf and you are trying not to stand on it. Order in winter, get the cable in, and the first warm evening of the year is ready for you rather than a job list.