How to Specify a Commercial Flagpole (CSI Section 107500)

To specify a commercial flagpole, you write a CSI Section 107500 guide specification that fixes six decisions: the design wind speed, the pole type, the height, the shaft material and finish, the foundation, and any illumination. Each decision is governed by a published standard, and they are not independent. Settle the wind basis first, because it sets the rating every other choice has to satisfy.

What is CSI Section 107500?

CSI Section 107500 (Flagpoles) is the MasterFormat section that governs flagpole materials, design, and installation on commercial and institutional projects. It is written in the standard three-part format, and each part answers a different question:

• Part 1, General: references and standards (NAAMM FP 1001-07, ASCE 7), submittals (shop drawings, structural calculations, samples), quality assurance, and warranty.
• Part 2, Products: the pole itself. Type, height, butt diameter and wall thickness, shaft alloy and finish, truck or beacon, halyard hardware, and flash collar.
• Part 3, Execution: the foundation and the installation. Ground sleeve or baseplate, concrete footing, grounding, plumbing, and sealing at grade.

The decisions below map to those parts. The wind basis lives in Part 1 and Part 2, the pole is Part 2, and the foundation is Part 3. Write them in that order and the spec stays internally consistent.

How do you determine the design wind load?

Determine the design wind speed from ASCE 7 for the project’s location and risk category, then specify a pole rated to meet or exceed it under NAAMM FP 1001-07. FlagCo’s standard reference is ASCE 7-10: a 3-second gust at 33 feet above grade, Risk Category II (a 700-year mean recurrence interval) for a typical commercial pole. The 2024 IBC carries ASCE 7-22, and state adoption is rolling out through 2025 and 2026, so confirm which edition the local code has adopted and state it explicitly in the spec.

NAAMM FP 1001-07, the Guide Specifications for Design of Metal Flagpoles, is the rating standard. Manufacturers publish a pole’s capacity at fixed wind-speed steps. Specify the step that meets or exceeds the site’s design wind speed:

One detail that changes the load: published “with flag” ratings reference a nylon flag. A polyester flag of the same size produces a higher wind load, so if the project flies a heavyweight polyester flag continuously, account for it rather than reading the nylon-baseline number straight off the chart. ASCE-designated special wind regions (mountains, gorges, coastal promontories) can also run higher than the base map shows, so a site in one of those areas needs its own verification.

How do you choose the pole type?

Choose the pole type by how the flag is raised and secured. The split is external halyard versus internal halyard, with a reinforced variant for high wind. External is the simplest and lowest cost; internal systems hide the halyard and resist tampering, which is why public, high-traffic, and government sites usually specify them.

Two notes for the spec. The internal winch and internal cam cleat poles are not reinforced; the reinforced winch and reinforced cam cleat are separate pole types, so name the exact one you need. And a beacon-illuminated pole cannot be an External Stationary type, because that pole has no rotating truck to carry the light.

Choosing the height

Match the pole height to the building it serves so the flag reads at the right scale and clears the roofline and nearby trees. As a rule of thumb, the flag length runs about one quarter of the pole height. FlagCo manufactures poles from 15 to 80 feet; the diagram below shows how a single height reads against different building masses.

Pole height should scale with the building mass it fronts. FlagCo manufactures 15 to 80 ft; taller poles are sourced.

What materials and finish do you specify?

Specify the shaft as 6063-T6 aluminum per ASTM B 221 (30,000 psi tensile, 25,000 psi yield), cone-tapered at the manufacturer’s standard rate. The alloy matters: 6063-T6 is the flagpole shaft alloy, not 6061-T6, and naming it correctly keeps a substitution from slipping through on submittal. Then fix the finish and the collar:

• Finish: satin (mill), clear or color anodized, or architectural powder coat. Anodized and powder coat carry the color and corrosion decisions, so call out the exact system and, for color, the specification.
• Flash collar: spun aluminum is standard; cast aluminum is an upgrade. It is sealed to the pole with exterior-grade silicone at the grade line.
• Access door (internal poles): milled from the shaft and secured with a stainless steel hinge and a cam lock.
• Rivets: 5056-H32 aluminum structural blind rivets, flush and countersunk.

How do you specify the foundation?

Specify the foundation from the project’s geotechnical report, not from a generic chart. The standard ground-set detail is a steel ground sleeve sized to the pole, set in a concrete footing; for poor or expansive soils, or a baseplate design, specify a shoe base with anchor bolts cast into the foundation instead. The steel ground sleeve also carries a factory-welded grounding provision, which Part 3 should reference.

Set depth scales with height. For FlagCo ground-set poles it runs about 10 percent of the above-grade height, which sets the sleeve length and the overall pole length you order:

These are the standard ground-set values. The footing diameter and depth around the sleeve are sized for the wind load and the soil, which is why the geotechnical report comes first. A site with unusual soil or a high water table can need a deeper, wider footing or the baseplate detail.

How do you specify illumination?

If the flag flies after dark, specify a beacon (a top-of-pole light) and its power source: 110V AC or a 12V DC solar package. A beacon replaces the standard truck and finial assembly, so it is selected with the pole, not added later. FlagCo beacons are Intertek (ETL) certified, not UL, and they ship as a matched package but are not factory-installed; the installer mounts the beacon on site during pole erection.

Two specification details that catch people out. Beacon output is dual: state both the 110V AC and the 12V DC solar lumen figures rather than a single number, because the two differ. And DarkSky International approval (with the integrated visor accessory) is per model, not universal, so confirm the specific beacon model’s status before writing a DarkSky claim into the spec. The FlagCo Beacon Resources page lists the models and their compatibility.

Common specification errors to avoid

Most flagpole submittal problems trace to a handful of spec gaps. These are the ones we see most often reviewing Section 107500 specs as the manufacturer:

• No geotechnical basis for the foundation. A ground-set detail copied from a previous project, with no soil report behind it, is the most common cause of a foundation that has to be redesigned in the field.
• The wrong wind edition, or no wind basis at all. State the ASCE 7 edition (7-10 or 7-22), the risk category, and the NAAMM rating. “Designed for local wind loads” is not specifiable.
• A basis-of-design with no real “or equal” path. Naming one product and quietly locking out competition invites a procurement challenge. Name the basis, then write an honest equivalency that holds the structural floor (NAAMM rating, alloy, halyard type).
• Height above 80 ft with no manufacture-versus-source note. FlagCo manufactures up to 80 ft; taller poles are sourced from approved suppliers, which changes Buy America (BABA) compliance and warranty. On federal and publicly funded work, say which it is. See the BABA-compliant supplier page for the compliance detail.
• Mixing flag assumptions. If the wind rating assumes a nylon flag but the project flies polyester, the published number understates the load. Keep the flag material consistent with the rating basis.

Frequently asked questions