Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Retired contractor and canoe enthusiast John MacLeod has devised a new way of constructing hanging slalom poles for white-water canoe courses using Hunter Plastics’ soil pipes.
The slalom poles are the striped poles which hang over the water creating the ‘gates’ that canoeists have to pass between in competition events.
Traditionally these poles are either made of wood – which has maintenance issues – or plastic composite which is expensive as a standard course has 20 gates requiring 40 poles. John’s solution is to uses 1.5m lengths of standard white Hunter soil pipes with a second pipe cut and squeezed inside the outer pipe to add weight and rigidity. Self-adhesive reflective vinyl is then applied to create the stripes. The poles are cheap and highly durable and John now has orders from canoe centres across the UK including the Olympic White Water course at Lea Valley, Essex.
White soil has become increasingly popular to match white rainwater and windows and so Hunter has extended its range of white soil products – including pipes – so that it is comprehensive enough to handle any unforeseen installation glitch on even the most ordinary project.
All manufactured to European standards (BSEN 1329 or BSEN 1451 as applicable), Hunter’s soil systems are available in a variety of popular colours as well as white. The tough PVC-U construction will withstand extremely high temperatures, has excellent chemical-resistant qualities and is unaffected by ultra-violet light, making it ideal for external as well as internal applications.
