Last summer I put up shade sails in my back yard. There's 4 4" steel posts each set about 4' in concrete. There are 2 3/8" galvanized cable loops running lengtwise, spanning ~23' each, with turnbuckles on one end of each loop. I attach the sails to the cables.
Over the winter I had taken everything down and de-tensioned the cables. I put everything back up last weekend, but I noticed I wasn't getting any tension when I tightened the cables, Upon further investigation, I found that poles one side of the yard - the side on which the turnbuckles are installed - where starting to pull, so there is now about 2" of free space on the back side of the concrete anchor. The other end of the yard is fine.
So, apparently the ground around these wasn't tight enough. This side gets the runoff from my carport, which is the only thing I can think of that's different between the side that's pulling out and the side that isn't.
So - how to fix it? My idea is to remove the sails and cables, and excavate around the existing anchor, then pour in more concrete. I can probably also rig a come-along to pull the pole back into position.
Thoughts?
