How much weight to keep blow molds standing up?

[liketoDIY 13]

I have two noel candle blow molds and they are pretty light weight. I'm wondering how much weight for them to stand up through 98% of weather.

I have unused river rocks & pebbles that I had bought from Lowes. I filled them equally in both blow molds. They now weight around 4lb 12oz.

[Rich in Las Vegas 30]

I never liked putting sand or pebbles in my blow molds because it makes storing them in my attic so much more difficult.  I bought some ~20 year old used blow molds in the middle of the summer and was surprised at how much the light was attenuated by the coating of dirt on the inside of the blow mold. It was quite a task to clean the insides after removing the material used to weigh them down.  I mount my blow molds on a piece of coroplast - used political signs that are easy to get around election day.

I live in the desert where most homeowners have switched to desert landscaping.  That usually means having rock in place of grass.  I also have expensive landscaping fabric under the stones so I do not want to anchor things through the fabric as it is intended to prevent weeds and perforating it gives weeds a way to root through the fabric.   I just push aside the stones, place the blow mold on the fabric and move the stones back over the coroplast.  We get some pretty windy days in late fall and early winter but none of these have ever moved an inch.  If you run into a place where you can't anchor them successfully, using the coroplast and a brick or two to hold down the coroplast works well too.

Here are a couple of the blow molds with the coroplast screwed to the base of the blow mold.

[Scott Rob 104]

I agree, I don’t put weight into any of my blow molds. For the same reason I store them in areas that can’t have much weight Per sq ft. I like using steel plates and ground rods ( steel with copper coating). For Noel candles I have to drill the hole a little bigger for ground rod to fit in them. See picture of Noel candles and ground rod. Last week we had storm with gust of 40miles winds and everything’s stayed in place. For steel plates I did have to drill holes in bottom for zip ties to go though. Also for large ones I place bricks though the hole in bottom.

Edited December 4, 2020 by Scott Rob

[slankard 105]

I echo your sentiments about storing blow molds in the attic.  I also have purchased a lot of blow molds that were full of gravel or rock and it sure seems to tear up the plastic bottoms.  I like to use half inch pvc hammered in the ground.

[penguins1 15]

I have a lot of river rock in my landscaping. I fill sandwich sized ziplocks with the river rock and place those in the bottoms of my blow molds. Works fairly well for my things except for soldiers and candles. 

[Gemmy doge 1]

I use green garden stakes that are hammered into the ground then on thinner items like lollypops or lamp posts I use zip ties to keep them tied to the pole. You can also go to any dollar tree and pick up some heavy duty rope but make sure the color is somewhat similar to the blow mold.

[shane page 136]

I don't put anything in mine, it will most likely ruin the mold. I mount mine to a piece to painted plywood with a couple drywall screws and then set a couple bricks on the wood. No problems.

[Big J Illinois 479]

I use metal posts drivin in the ground 8" and use 2" drywall screws ,through the holes into the mold..it keeps them up right in 40mph wind, no weight,doesn't kill the grass and easy storage.. also,a great theft deterant Havent lost one yet

[liketoDIY 13]

Interesting methods you all have come up with.
Currently they are standing on the sidewalk/walkway and I will leave them there. I have no desire to do any more works as I'm 99.9% done with the decorations. Will think more when summer come again.

[dchackert 39]

I've done two things. Ones with a hole in the bottom i put two garden stakes the width of the hole and have no issues. I also use plywood for some as a base and then stake them down.

[FatBiker 2]

Putting any kind of weights in the bottom of blow molds is a bad idea.  I use a combination of wood garden stakes, reflector sidewalk stakes or metal tent poles.  I have around 50 blowmolds in our yard. The street we live on is kind of a wind tunnel and get high winds quite often.

The most interesting thing I found in inside of blowmold that I picked up was about 20 sockets used as weight.

 

[shane page 136]

Sounds like a bonus.

[Scott Rob 104]

Found pictures from Halloween of type I use.  I also put some in bushes so I use milk crates to give them more height. I like the plywood idea I need to try that out. I got a lot of steel shipping covers from a auction at work 8 years ago . It was by weight so I paid $10 for pallet of steel shipping cover plates. Also I got some wall deco concrete blocks and I zip ties molds to them. The last photo has pumpkin and lamp post pumpkin with these wall deco blocks. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Scott Rob

[nipster 10]

I don't use weight, I drive a 1" diameter pvc pipe into the ground. About a 3' length of pipe per blow mold does the trick... I have done this for 20 years and it does the trick. When I first started doing displays I used bags of sand, but the PVC pipe is better, no way it's blowing over, ever...

Some people may not want to do this because you have to drill or cut a little round hole in the base of the blow mold in some instances, but it's worth it... beat the pipe into the ground with a rubber mallet

For some smaller blow molds like soldiers or nativity I use small wooden stakes. You can buy them at walmart for $1.50 each and they do the trick. They only last a couple seasons, the PVC pipe lasts forever

[Scott Rob 104]

On 12/4/2020 at 6:27 AM, shane page said:

I don't put anything in mine, it will most likely ruin the mold. I mount mine to a piece to painted plywood with a couple drywall screws and then set a couple bricks on the wood. No problems.

Just wounding what type of plywood and thickness of plywood do you use? I just got some drainage ghost from Mercari on good deal to me. They had some dents near the bottom. I noticed that most I have seen on-line have damage to bottom. I now know why the plastic is thick near center and on edges of base it like milk jug or thinner. I think these would be great to try making a base for. I have worked on getting the dents out but the thinner plastic will not say out I might use a heat gun to see if I can keep dents out.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Scott Rob

[shane page 136]

I use 1/2" or 3/4" it doesn't really matter. I put 2 coats of paint on it so it lasts longer, I just use cheap paint from Walmart. You can use a heat gun just watch you don't get it to hot, I use a halogen work light, seems to work pretty good.

[Scott Rob 104]

Thanks I will give it a try. These two need a good cleaning inside and out. I think they were stored In a barn for long time:) 

[Rich in Las Vegas 30]

I visited a friend today to deliver some birthday gifts and while I was there I saw firsthand how much damage a weight and the sun can do.  He brought out a snowman that was far different from any I had ever seen.  In order to weigh it down he had cut a big hole in the back of the mold and inserted two bricks.  It had been stored outside under a tree except for around Halloween and Christmas when he brings it out first with a black garbage bag over it and then displayed openly.  The bricks were in it while stored.  Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a TPI snowman from 2004 - 40" Snowman with bird in hand.  It would have been a great find if it was for sale and in good shape.  Unfortunately the plastic was pretty fragile.  We set it on a tree stump in front of his yard.

The picture below is from blow-molded.com where I found out what it was.  Much of the paint was still on it in spite of being poorly stored.

[tcrhino 0]

I never put any weight in the molds. I actually have ppl give them to me all the time and the 1st thing I do is remove any and all sandbags etc. They all hold moisture and are not good. I simply put a stake behind each mold (we have over 200 in our display) and then attach the mold to the stake with galvanized 20 gauge bailing wire. I put a minimum of 2 on each mold and the large ones get 3. We get alot of wind and I very rarely have to do anything to maintain the molds through the lighting season.