Polestars Guide to Buying a Pole

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Choosing A Pole

Your first choice is between a pole with a large heavy base (podium pole) or a pole that fits between floor and ceiling (floor to ceiling poles).

For most home poles a floor to ceiling pole is going to be the best solution.

Podium poles are simple enough to use, but they do not provide the stability that a floor to ceiling pole can. The benefit of podium poles is they can be set up anywhere. You can purchase a good portable podium pole from X-Pole or some heavier models from Palladium or Alistage.

There are many poles on the market, we sell Kitten Kit, Alistage, BCL and X-Pole so will compare these poles.

Floor to Ceiling Poles
There are a number of different poles that you can buy, all of them brace themselves between floor and ceiling and are held there by pressure. For this to work you need a sturdy floor and ceiling. Most average floors and ceiling are perfectly acceptable, but do have a think about where you can put it before you buy.

There are a number of factors to take into account when choosing your pole

Width of Pole
Most poles are 50mm wide, however Kitten Kit offer a thin 38mm pole and the X-pole comes in both 50mm and 45mm.

Ceiling Fitting
The BCL pole has a fitting that will stay permanently in your ceiling and makes it very secure, however you do have to drill at least one small whole in the ceiling.

The X-Pole and Alistage Pole have ceiling fittings that come down with the pole.

Kitten Kit has the option of either fixed or removable.

Portability
The Kitten Kit and X-Pole both collapse down into more than one part and can be carried in a bag.

The BCL pole and Alistage pole come in one length and are harder to transport and pack away.

Adjustability
The BCL and Alistage poles are one solid pole and need to be cut to fit your room, this means they are simple to put up but they can only be moved to another location with a very similar floor to ceiling height.

If you want to move your pole from location to location (when you move house/flat for example) then an X-Pole is the most flexible and the Kitten Kit a close second.

Preparing to Buy a Pole

Before you buy a pole you should decide where you are going to put the pole, take a careful measurement and then check the floor and ceiling.

Measuring for your pole
All poles need a floor to ceiling measurement to be taken. When you take the measurement do it exactly, and measure at the point where you will locate your pole. Many ceilings and floors are uneven and a measurement in one part of a room, may not be correct for another part of the room. Measurements in centimetres and metres are the most universally accepted.

Locating the Pole
You really want a minimum of 1 metre clearance in all directions and ideally 1.5 metres.  For most average size rooms this means that pole is going to be in the centre of the room. Once you have found the ideal location you should check the floor and ceiling. If you are unlucky there may not be a fixing point in the right point in the room for you to get enough space around the pole.

Floors
You have to have a pretty bad floor for it to be unsuitable. However you should check that the floor is solid and does not bend or flex at the point you want to locate the pole. A concrete floor will be fine as long as it is flat. Most floor boards are strong enough as long as they are securely attached. All the poles will grip on to most types of floor covering, but we would not recommend fitting them onto ceramic floor tiles.

Ceilings
There are four common types of ceiling: joisted, concrete, exposed beams and false. Whichever type of pole you use, you must understand where the strong fixing points are in the ceiling.  Even if you use a removable pole with a wide top (like the X-Pole) you still need to put it up in the correct place on your ceiling.

Fitting the Pole

Concrete Ceilings
Concrete is difficult to drill into (you will want an above average strength drill, a good drill bit and some patience if you have well made concrete), but is very solid once you have it fixed.

Exposed Beams
As long as your beams are wooden then you can screw straight into them very easily and satisfactorily. For Alistage and X-Poles you will need a

Joisted Ceilings
This is the most common type of ceiling and basically there are wooden beams (called studs) which run from wall to wall. A light-weight board made of plaster is nailed/screwed onto the beams and this is then painted.

Plasterboard is very weak, you must locate the pole underneath one of the wooden studs that are behind the plasterboard. The trick here is finding the studs.

The best solution is to buy a stud locator from a DIY store. Most big stores will sell them (if you type ‘stud locator’ into Google you will find plenty).

You run the stud locator over the ceiling and it beeps when it finds a stud. In most ceilings this is pretty easy and you will find them about every 40 / 50 cm in most ceilings. The studs should be running in one direction across your ceiling.

Once you think you have found a beam it is worth drilling a tiny pilot hole to check that there really is a beam there. You will feel the drill bite into some harder wood when you get through the plasterboard if there is a beam there.

False Ceilings
This you find in a lot of modern buildings or conversions. In this type of ceiling there is a gap between the ceiling that you can see in the room and the real ceiling. The false ceiling may have tiles of some sort (often polystyrene) or they may use plasterboard.

In general false ceilings are a bit problematic and we would not generally recommend fixing on them. However it can be done.

If you have a tiled ceiling with a space behind it, then you need to fix into the real ceiling and remove a tile when you want to put the pole up. If there is a very large distance between the false and real ceiling then you may have difficulty getting the pole up and down.

If the ceiling is plasterboard then it depends on how securely the false ceiling is fixed. If when standing on a ladder and pushing with all your strength the ceiling does not move or creak you should be all right.

If your false ceiling is strong and supported by wooden studs then you can treat it as a joisted ceiling.

However if it is strong and supported by metal fixings you need another solution. We recommend fitting a large wooden plate to the ceiling with hollow wall screws. The plate should stretch across more than one metal fitting point in the ceiling. The pole can then be fixed on the centre of the board.

Setting Up the Pole

Once you have found the stud / joistAll poles will come with their own instructions about setting up the pole, the most important thing is to get your pole properly vertical and make sure all the fixings and fittings are secure and the pole is checked before you use it.

Wear and Tear
Other than wear and tear to the pole the areas that you need to be concerned about are the floor and ceiling.

It is quite possible that any type of pole will cause some marks to be left on your floor if it is up often and tightened hard. BCL provide their poles with thick neoprene rubber pads which are very effective but even then there may still be some marking. They should not cause serious damage but do be prepared for some marks to be left.

If you are fitting up against plasterboard then prolonged pressure can leave some marks or even wear away the plasterboard slowly. If you find that your fitting is sinking slowly into your ceiling or is becoming loose then you should have a good look at what is happening.

We have developed a system of wooden plates that we use as our poles get so much sustained and regular use. You need to find two studs, make a wooden plate large enough to be attached to both studs and then attaché the pole fitting to the wooden plate.

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