Bollard Installation

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A Bollard Is Mostly A Vehicle Deterrent:

If you are the average bear, odds are you don’t even know what a bollard is and you are just clicking here to extinguish your fiery curiosity.

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Common Type Of Bollards:

The most common kind of bollards installed by contractors looks like a thick section of metal pipe imbedded into concrete, or a more fragile bollard has a perforated metal plate welded on the bottom, this plate is attached to the floor with bolts.

You order the bollards you want, mark the location on the floor for each, then you call us so we can install them all on a time and materials basis. If you want someone to do even that to you too, just call us and we handle the setting up by making an in-person assessment and recommendations first.

If you are still not sure what a bollard is, for you we are posting this tiny picture:

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We Decide, Fabricate and Install It For You When You Have Better Things To Do.

Now if you intentionally clicked to this page, you probably already understand the advantages of installing bollards to protect areas against unwanted vehicle incursion.

A simple, but strong bolt-on bollard can be bought online (stay away from the cheapest ones), and we install it for you on a time and materials basis. – – Unless, all you want to do is to stop people from parking in certain areas, then these are OK.

Unfortunately, these bolt-on bollards will not stop incurring vehicles from entering the areas that you are planning to protect, even when accidentally. They are merely a device that dents anyone's cars that accidentally go too far into the prohibited zones, or its only valued for the crashing noise that makes people step on their brakes!

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From K-rated to Decorative Bollards

Now if you need the real thing, we engineer and imbed pipe bollards into the ground and reinforce it with concrete, so a truck can be stopped in its tracks, or we can fabricate pretty decorative bollards so your grounds will look like an European cobblestone street...

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REAL Bollard Installation In Los Angeles - The Easiest And Cheapest Kind For Installation:

The fact is, that we are familiar with and we can install all kinds of bollards – bollards that warn and direct drivers into parking lots; safety bollards that actually stop a moving vehicle at impact for those drivers who can’t follow instructions; retractable bollardscollapsible bollards; removable bollards; plastic bollards; portable bollards.

Big bollards, small bollards, long bollards, short bollards, bollards of any and every color. You get the gist of it.

Don’t waste your time, call us, say what you want and we go do it. Problem solved.

Specialized Bollard, engineered bollards And "K" Rated Bollard - Bollard Installation In Los Angeles Just call us and we do it for you. Book a job assessment now or call (323) 707-4979

The distinction that decides everything: rated or not rated

There are two completely different products sold under the same word, and the difference is not the steel you can see.

A decorative or pipe bollard has a footing sized to hold the post upright against wind and the occasional bump. That is all it is designed to do, and it has no independently verified ability to stop a vehicle.

A crash-rated bollard has been tested, as a system, against a vehicle traveling at a defined speed, and it carries a rating that says exactly what it stopped.

If the reason you are installing bollards is to stop a car, the first question is which of those two you are buying. Most buyers never ask, and most quotes never say.

The two standards, and which one you actually need

ASTM F3016 is the low-speed standard.

It tests a 5,000 pound vehicle at 10, 20 or 30 miles per hour, producing S10, S20 and S30 ratings. It was written for storefronts, sidewalk cafes and everyday parking lot incursions, which is to say for the situation most commercial property owners are actually facing.

ASTM F2656 is the high-speed standard.

Every M-rating under it uses the same test vehicle, a 15,000 pound medium-duty truck. M30 stops it at 30 miles per hour, M40 at 40, M50 at 50. This is the standard written for federal buildings, airports and critical infrastructure.

For a retail frontage or a parking lot, F3016 is usually the appropriate standard and F2656 is usually more barrier than the situation calls for. Being sold the federal-grade system for a storefront is a common and expensive mismatch.

The second number nobody explains: penetration

A crash rating has two halves, and buyers usually only hear the first.

The penetration rating says how far the vehicle continued past the barrier. P1 means less than 3.3 feet. The scale runs to P4, which permits more than 98 feet.

So an M30 P1 and an M30 P3 both stopped the same truck at the same speed, and they are not the same product. One stopped it at the line. The other let it travel far enough to still reach what you were protecting.

If a specification gives you a speed rating with no penetration rating, it is incomplete.

The part that is underground is the product

This is the single most important thing on this page, and it is the reason bollard work belongs to a general building contractor rather than to whoever installs the posts.

A crash-rated bollard is certified as a complete assembly: the post, the depth of the footing, the reinforcing steel in it, and the spacing between units. Install that same post on a different footing and the rating no longer applies to what you built.

Static crash-rated systems typically require a reinforced concrete footing set somewhere in the range of four to six feet below finished grade, deeper as the rating goes up, because the entire job of that footing is to transfer the impact into the ground instead of letting the post rotate out of it.

Which brings the real constraints into view, and they are all below the surface:

• Utilities. A four to six foot excavation along a frontage or a parking aisle runs into gas, water, electrical and communications. Locating before digging is not optional

• Existing slab and subgrade. Cutting into a structural slab is a different job from cutting into a parking lot

• Soil. The footing works by bearing against soil, and expansive clay behaves differently from compacted granular fill

• Drainage and the finished surface, because the patch around each bollard is what the client sees every day

The concrete work around and under them is the same discipline as any other flatwork, and on expansive soils it is the part that decides whether the repair line opens in year two: concrete driveways and patios.

Fixed, removable or retractable

• Fixed. The strongest, the cheapest, and permanent. The right answer wherever access does not need to change

• Removable. Lifts out of a sleeve for deliveries or events. Convenience costs strength, and the sleeve and its footing are still the whole job

• Retractable and automatic. The most expensive, with a hydraulic or electric operator, controls, drainage in the pit and a maintenance schedule that has to be real

Removable bollards fail in a specific and predictable way: the sleeve fills with debris and water, the lock seizes, and within two years nobody removes them any more. Drainage in the sleeve is what prevents that, and it is the detail most often skipped.

Accessibility, which is easy to get wrong

Bollards frequently end up on or beside a pedestrian route, and a route that serves accessible parking or an accessible entrance has a minimum clear width that has to be maintained.

Spacing bollards for vehicle protection and spacing them for pedestrian passage are two different calculations, and the accessible route governs. Working that out at layout costs nothing. Working it out after the footings are poured costs a great deal.

Where bollards usually belong

• Storefront glass and entry vestibules, which is the most common storefront crash scenario

• Fuel dispensers, charging stations and utility equipment

• Building corners at the end of a drive aisle, where a vehicle arrives with speed

• Fire department connections, backflow preventers and gas meters

• Loading docks and dumpster enclosures, where reversing does the damage

• Parking structure columns and the equipment inside a gated entry

That last one overlaps with gate work, where the operator and the posts are the expensive things to replace after an impact: driveway gates and gate safety.

Fabrication, finishes and coastal corrosion behave the same way here as on any other exterior steel: metal fabrication services in Los Angeles. And where a bollard doubles as a guard at a change in level, a different set of numbers applies: guardrails and metal railings.

Common questions

Will a standard pipe bollard stop a car?

Sometimes, at low speed, by luck. It has not been tested and nobody can tell you what it will do. If the answer matters, that is the definition of needing a rated system.

Can you install a crash-rated bollard I bought myself?

Yes, and the rating only survives if it is installed to the tested footing detail. We will need the manufacturer's installation drawing, because that drawing is the rating.

Do bollards need a permit?

Often, particularly on commercial property, where they touch the public right of way, or where they are tied to an accessible route. It varies by jurisdiction and it is worth confirming before mobilizing.

What does it cost?

Rated or unrated, how many, the footing depth the rating requires, what is underground where they go, and how the surface gets restored all move it substantially. Rather than publish a figure that would be wrong for your site, we will look at it with you.

Start with a free 15-minute call

Tell us what you are protecting, whether this is after an incident or before one, the surface they would go into, and whether the area serves accessible parking. In fifteen minutes we can usually tell you whether you need a rated system, which standard fits, and what is likely to be underground.

Call (323) 707-4979 to book the free 15-minute consultation.

The Ultimate Pro, Inc. CA License 831700, Class B General Building. Serving Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties since 1996.

Walls, concrete and masonry are the hardest work to undo, which is why the planning matters more than the pour. Book a free 15-minute call or call (323) 707-4979 and bring what you know about the site. We will tell you what an engineer is going to want to see.

Prefer to watch before you call? X Plan Nation is The Ultimate Pro's YouTube channel, where we take construction apart step by step so you can tell good work from work that will come back.

The Ultimate Pro, Inc. · California contractor license 831700 · Class B general building · 18481 Grand Avenue, Lake Elsinore, CA 92530 · Serving Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and the Inland Empire since 1996.