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My X-Pole is Hulk-Smashing My Ceiling and I Don’t Know What To Do About It
Oh man…I have the worst luck with X-Pole installation, or maybe my house is just wacky. So, I was lying on the floor doing my stretching last night when I noticed this crack. Obviously it’s from the pole putting too much pressure on the ceiling (whether it’s because it’s over-tightened, or not directly under a joist, I’m not exactly sure). I’ve had this pole up since December 2017 with no issues until recently.
I was sure I’d gotten it under a joist. Stud finders don’t work well on my ceilings (they light up like crazy, even using the old cardboard trick), so I found the joist using a combination of: stud finder, measuring from the wall to the center of the room, and knocking on the ceiling.
The stud finder wasn’t super helpful but it seemed to consistently beep over that one area. I know the direction the beams go in and the distance between them because there’s a hole in my basement ceiling I used to find all of this out – I’m hoping it applies to the entire house. I’m not sure what other tricks I can use to find the joist. My pole tightness seems to be OK based on what an X-Pole rep told me last time I asked.
My questions are: is this safe to use or should I move my pole? If I need to move my pole, how the heck do I find a joist when knocking, stud finders, and measuring have all failed me? I know the easy answer is to get a ceiling mount, and I’d really love to, however, if I can’t find a joist I can’t install a ceiling mount, either. I’m hesitant to cut into the ceiling or try to nail anything into it since we’re not sure what the asbestos risk is. What are my options? My fi and I are both 0% handy. Thanks in advance!
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9 Replies
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Get a telescoping magnet/rare earth magnet to look for the nails in the joist. The nails should be in the middle of the beam. I put my pole directly under where I found one. Here’s a video showing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJHZqNVBrl0
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Thanks nyxed! I’m going to see if I can get one of those this weekend. I was worried they’d find other things in my ceiling (wires, etc…) but I guess I could deduce where the joists are better than with the stud finder which lights up all the freaking time! If I trusted the stud finder I’d have to believe my entire ceiling is one giant joist. 😛
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YEAH! It worked!!! It took a couple of weeks for the rare earth magnet to come into the store, but I got it and spent the afternoon mapping out my ceiling joists. Even my fi, who thought I was crazy (he swore up and down I was under a joist) was impressed. And once again…I was also impressed with the sheer amount of idiocy that went into our house’s design.
So, the ceiling joists appear to be running in the opposite direction as the floor joists, and they are also spaced differently – they are much, much wider apart. Unfortunately, this means that placing my pole directly under a joist will put me waaaaay too close to one of the walls. I mean…so close I can’t pole in my 8 inch heels. So close I can’t do spins or spin pole combos, which seriously sucks because the pole in the basement is too short for combos period. Heck, I’ve even started stubbing my toes on the ceiling when I invert (Veena’s nailed it program for inverts works a little too well – lol!).
There is nowhere else I can put my pole. This is so, so frustrating. Now that I’m getting stronger (yay!) I’m having a heck of a hard time poling at home. Unfortunately, my studio is 45 mins away and although it’s awesome, there’s nothing quite like having 100% control over music, time, and lighting.
Is it OK for my pole to NOT be under a joist? I mean…it has damaged the ceiling a bit, sure, but as long as I make sure it’s tight before every use will it be OK? What are my options here?
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Place a board of plywood across two joists and put up the pole under that. It will spread the load to the joists and hopefully avoid more damage to the ceiling. I wouldn’t leave it between joists just on the drywall, if it were to break through while doing a spin or invert it could potentially fall and really hurt you.
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Seconding not leaving it outside the joists. Even if you make sure it’s tight, it could break the ceiling at any time and fall. In fact, if you keep tightening it, the more likely that is to happen. Please don’t risk your safety!!
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Yes, you HAVE to have the pole under a joist. The board across two as dustbunny said is a much better option! Is there a reason you can’t put the pole upstairs?
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Thanks everyone! I did end up moving the pole so it’s under a joist. I’m not thrilled about it but it’s better to be safe. It’s usable, just not ideal. If it gets really bad I might see if I can install a beam between the two joists. At the very least there will probably soon be some pretty hilarious videos of me smacking into a wall – lol!
Unfortunately, there’s nowhere else I can put my poles – our house is quite small. I know I’m very fortunate to have two pole rooms when most people struggle to even find one suitable room to pole in. I guess I’m probably a little more upset about this than I should be. A lot of things are going wrong with our house right now so my tolerance for small stuff is low – haha!
I’ll bet we all have (or have had to) cope with a less than ideal pole space. 🙂
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I’ll bet most of us have! I know I am lucky in some ways. My hubby let me turn our whole living room into a pole space (we made a nice den in the basement instead) so I have tons of horizontal space and floor area which is great for floorwork and standing work but my ceiling is just over 7.5feet high so I feel terribly limited that way and it drives me crazy. I can reach to the top of the pole while standing on the floor and in heels…well it’s not even a stretch. I have learned how to work with it for the most part but long aerial combos are pretty much impossible and I know I have a lot of bad habits because of the height limitations especially when it comes to inverting. But oh well, we just make the best with whatever we have I guess.
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Your pole space is gorgeous! And yes…I’ve developed bad habits because of my low ceiling (inverting with frog legs/crooked legs). Maybe one day we’ll have pole spaces with nice, 14 ft ceilings! 😀
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