Overheard a guy at the supply house say he stopped using zip ties for drop lines

He was telling the clerk he had a line get cut by one after a few seasons of sun and wind. Said he switched to velcro straps, specifically the 8 inch ones from Klein. I always thought zip ties were fine if you left them loose, but his point about the plastic getting brittle made sense. What do you guys use to secure the drop from the pole to the house?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles_barnes3mo ago

Yeah, my buddy had that exact thing happen last year. A zip tie he used on a service drop got baked in the sun for a couple summers, snapped clean, and the line whipped down and took out a chunk of his gutter. Total mess. He's been using those heavy duty velcro straps ever since and hasn't had a problem. Makes sense, the plastic just can't handle the weather after a while.

sageburns1mo ago

Heard that @charles_barnes, same thing happened to my neighbor's setup last fall. We were just standing on his porch when we heard this loud snap and saw his whole service drop sagging down, barely hanging on by a thread. Took a chunk out of his eaves trough when it finally let go a few days later. He'd had those basic white zip ties on there for maybe two years and they were totally faded and crumbly. Swapped to some of those nylon coated steel straps and hasn't touched it since. Plastic's just got no business being outside that long.

eva6663mo ago

My neighbor Mike had a zip tie fail on his mast last spring. It was only three years old but looked totally sun-bleached and brittle. When it broke, the drop line swung loose and put a nasty dent in his siding. He switched to those UV rated velcro straps and it's been solid for two years now. The plastic just doesn't hold up like you'd think.