Longacre Green Oak Post and Festoon Installation Five Post 40 Metre

Air dried green oak, 100mm square, left untreated so it silvers. Oak moves and checks as it dries and that is not a fault, it is oak.

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: 5 posts at 3.2m above ground, 40m total festoon run
• Materials: green oak posts, 3mm stainless catenary, rubber jacketed LED festoon
• Finish: untreated, will silver
• Light source: 40 x 1W LED festoon lamps at 1 metre centres
• Light output: about 3200 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: 40m of festoon plus a 10m outdoor supply lead
• Warranty: 5 years on the fitting, 2 years on the LED and driver
• Suits a medium lawn or a long terrace
• 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 128.0 kilograms

In the box

• 5 x green oak posts, 3.6m long for 3.2m above ground
• 5 x galvanised driven ground anchors with wedge bolts
• 55m of 3mm stainless catenary wire
• 10 x turnbuckles, wire rope grips and thimbles
• 40m of rubber jacketed LED festoon with lamps fitted
• 5 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.