www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

A 'local' car boot sale near me would be a potential hour bus journey there and an hour back. If I knew I would be returning home with the goods I needed, then I would be happy to endure the truly miserable face of the bus driver and the journey, but it would also potentially be a fruitless trip, too. That kind of ruins the idea a bit for me and it would be 2 hours of my life I would never get back!

A car boot sale is a great idea, but for me a little impractical. For the time being, I'm happy to continue searching or hearing people's suggestions :)

I've found a new search term to play with which seems to be turning up some interesting results. I'll be sure to ask your opinions :)

P.S. Appreciate your opinions of the varnished steel rod. I won't be buying that, then!

I think you're over thinking this.
You need a stake to hammer in the ground so you can nail a sign to the top of it?
If you want one that does not rot get a round plastic tree stake or round plastic fence post.
Or just get a wooden one. Sure it will rot in 5 or 10 years time and need replacing. It'll cost you another £5 to replace it when the time comes assuming you are still living there then?
As I understand it your going to be hammering it in the grass verge at the edge of your property? If so you need something sturdy enough that when a passing drunk falls into it he doesn't knock it over? So a 6 footer knocked 2 to 3 feet into the ground?

Hi Mike,

I appreciate what you are saying. I did wonder myself if I was over thinking the problem but the aesthetic appearance of what the signs are mounted to is what drove me down the metal post route. I don't want to just mount the signs to anything which can be hammered into the ground. I will see the signs every day and if they don't look right, they'll only irritate me. I've reached that stage in life where pretty much everything irritates me!

I mentioned in my original post, I thought about mounting them to treated wooden garden stakes, but assumed metal tube would look better and somehow be easier…

I originally thought, as I jauntily skipped towards the computer, "What could possibly be more simple than to find a length of 25mm square coated metal tube on't tinternet?” How wrong I was... When I found something the shipping was either astronomical and more than the product itself, or B&Q pulled the rug from under my feet by advertising a product which they did not stock, at all, in any store, absolutely nowhere, nationwide!

While I’ve been typing away you’ve actually possibly swayed my opinion. The posts need to be reasonably weatherproof, black and about 25mm square. I've just remembered I have a tin of Bitumen and Flash Primer which I’d forgotten about:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1

If I painted these stakes (or similar):
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tree-stakes- ... 2208293515
(10 Steaks, 3ft, 25mm) with the primer, that would solve the colour and size issue. This might be the way to go :-D

The only 'passing drunk' falling into signs is likely to be me after all this.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Victor Meldrew.