Flagpole installation acrossIdaho

Flagpoles in Idaho

Capitol and county work in the Treasure Valley, lake frontage at Coeur d'Alene, and farm and laboratory ground east of both. One quote covers the pole, a footing taken below the frost line, the flag and the labour.

Wind here. Idaho is the rare state where the wind figure does not move. From Coeur d'Alene in the panhandle to Idaho Falls on the eastern plain, every jurisdiction we have checked designs to the same 115 mph, so a pole sized for one end of the state is sized for the other. What moves is the ground under it and the snow above it. Twin Falls buries a footing 24 inches and works from 15 pounds of snow a square foot on the ground; Idaho Falls, at 4,710 ft, buries it 30 inches and works from 47; and in the top zone of the Kootenai County map there is no published figure at all until an engineer produces one. In Idaho the number that decides a pole is usually the one under it rather than the one blowing at it.

• The Treasure Valley — 115 mph on 24 inches of frost depth and 20 pounds of snow a square foot. Standard wall covers most sites, which leaves the choice to height and finish rather than to the shaft.
• The Magic Valley and the canyon rim — 115 mph again, and the lightest snow figure on this page: 15 pounds a square foot on the ground at Twin Falls. The exception is the rim itself. The wind standard adds a speed-up over an edge like that, so rim frontage is sized as open ground even where the town behind it is sheltered.
• Eastern Idaho and the upper Snake — 115 mph, but 30 inches of frost depth at Idaho Falls, 47 pounds of snow a square foot on the ground, and seismic design category D. The pole is ordinary; the base under it is not.
• The panhandle and the mountain towns — 115 mph, with lake frontage at Coeur d'Alene the one exposure in Idaho a county writes up as open water, and roof snow starting at 40 pounds a square foot in Kootenai County against 150 pounds on the ground at McCall. Heavier hardware and a wider footing, not a heavier shaft.

Flying the Idaho flag? We sell it, sewn to the state's own design specification and sized to sit under the national flag on your pole. See the Idaho flag →