Wondering why you're thinking of reinforcing copper with rebar? Plain copper pipe seems cheaper than the copper tubing & is inherently strong. The tubing can be used for decorative elements or circling a pipe structure to tie it togeher - not really structural support. With the corrosion copper causes to baser metals like rebar, believe you're talking galvanic action & are right not to combine the two. If you slip plastic tubing over the rebar to isolate the surface from contacting the copper, you may be able to avoid the situation. Might be worth researching if you prefer that construction technique. Have seen hoses & plastic tubing threaded over rebar arches before installing to give a less rustic appearance & protect from rust. They can be sealed at the bottom & slipped into anchor holes. But the rebar & the tubing must be bone dry & done on a low humidity day to guard against sealing moisture in. If you're thinking of using the rebar just to help shape the copper & not for any structural reason, don't see why its eventual flaking to nothing inside the copper would matter. Farmers here use locust posts for fencing & char the bases that go below ground to preserve them. Enlarging a garden bed here, found a charred 10" diameter tree trunk buried a foot below ground. Took most of a day to dig & pull it out. Heard some of the trees here that were cleared off when this house was built were burned on site. It's against code to bury such partially burned wood, since it doesn't decompose. At any rate, that trunk looked as if it was petrified. Couldn't even get a chainsaw through it! So there's tradition behind this method. Only a couple wooden garden structures over the years, since I worried about upkeep & rot. Did erect a plain untreated tall 6x6 post for a condo birdhouse 20+ years ago. Triple-coated it on all surfaces with Thompson's stain & then mounted it on a metal fence post anchor. The birdhouse fell apart many years ago, but the post still stands. We had cedar outdoor furniture for years that we oiled annually to maintain. Without that protection, it would become rough & crack - not great for comfort. Still use the Thompson's tinted stain on the few wooden elements outside - the mailbox post, the finial for the copper ogee trellis, the handle of an iron hose reel - giving them another coat after washing down maybe every 7-10 years. It's certainly preserved them. Like the dark gray called Colonial Blue - can't see the "blue" in it, but it gives depth to the gray - because it fits in well with natural garden colors. Figure a copper cap on an upright post treated with the Thompson's tinted stain would last many years if installed with a fence anchor. (Use copper nails or screws to prevent that galvanic action.) We've used the tapered as well as the corkscrew types & they've remained sturdy. Last time we put up a bird feeder post mounted with an anchor, my husband put one of those vinyl sleeves over it & that's lasted nicely 15 years. Bears come by & shimmy the post to remove the feeder & it stays straight. I hose it down once a year & it still looks new. Two hefty wrought-iron arches put in 16 years ago lost their original powdercoat just last year. I preferred to just oil them (oil rubbed with a rag), but my DH decided to spray them with heavy-duty Rustoleum. We'll see how that stands up. Wrought iron garden furniture needs a wire brush & repaint every 4-5 years. I may just strip & oil them next time that job comes up. Two heavy 3-fold (that store flat & pull out to form 3 sides) 5' iron trellises that came oiled still look great 10 years later with no further treatment. My favorite for install & forget is the copper pipe. The verdigris that forms protects the metal. An identical circumference steel pipe marked for the depth desired, pounded in to create the holes with a level & pulled straight out allows the copper pipes to be slipped in firm footing. They're pricey to buy, but not difficult to make. Junk yards can be sources of used copper & other materials. Bought a bunch of those cheaply made painted metal tube arches that come in pieces for assembly with screws when found on clearance for $5 a pop. Wanted to play with arches set in a circle & figured that was a cheap way to get a 3-D model before laying out for a copper one. Left two up a couple years now & surprised they still look good apart from the screws starting to rust. Maybe I'll put them all back up, plant them & then replace them one at a time with copper while the climbing roses grow their roots. Really liked the fairy ring look. Hope this longwinded response helps you with the construction phase of your new garden! Here is a link that might be useful: Fence Anchors This post was edited by vasue on Tue, Mar 18, 14 at 15:09

Thank you so much for the heads up Jackie, I'll now see how much the copper pipe and tubing will cost me! Jerijen, I don't think any thief would be bold enough to try and make it through my 'siepe rustica' - a hedgerow I devised because we weren't allowed to fence our property. I planted it in January 2012 and it's now about 1.5 - 2 metres tall - a mix of blackthorn, hawthorn, dog rose and fire thorn. Each one with thorns more vicious than the last - where there's a willâ¦â¦ :-)) Veronica, I'm attaching a photo of the tripod I found on the internet - it was on a DIY site (in German) - I used Google Translate to discover that the tripod is made from 3 lengths of 18mm (þ inch) copper pipe 2.5 metres (about 8 feet) long soldered together at the top and the spiral is an 8 metre length of 1mm copper tubing. One of my neighbours knows a blacksmith who has very reasonable prices so I will ask how much it might cost. I saw somewhere on another site that an advantage of using copper pipe to make an 'obelisk' is that you can hammer some steel reinforcing bars into the ground and then position the copper pipes over them so they will stay well-anchored (we often have very strong winds here so I need to be sure it won't be blown away). Thank you all ⦠Tricia

On our remodel I told our builder I wanted copper on all drinking water sources. I rationalized that I spend enough time in places where I can't drink the water and I wasn't doing that in my own house. We are using PEX for the baseboard heat, PVC for waste lines, and copper for all supply. I know that PEX has its benefits but it hasn't been around long enough that I'm drinking from it (even though I drank from a green garden hose as a kid, I know it's somewhat irrational but it's my money). I don't think your choice will affect resale UNLESS someone finds out that it does leach chemicals and then it will be like Chinese drywall and lead paint - a big deal for some people but not all.

This is a fascinating series of emails and I hope you guys are still around monitoring this since you obviously know your stuff. I am in the process of replacing old screw (gate) valves in my basement with ball valves since they are very much deteriorated, and I'm almost finished with that job. I was thinking about changing the pipe diameter of the hot water run from the hot water heater since it takes sooo long for the shower to get hot. But after reading these posts I think I may leave it all alone since it seems to work fairly well and I'm afraid I may "unbalance" the system if I change it. I would love some advice though. Originally all the copper pipe in my house was quite large. The water main from the well was 1.25 inch pipe which split to 1 inch pipe into hot and cold supplies, and fixtures coming off of those are either 3/4 inch or 1/2 inch. My well pressure ranges from 25 PSI to 45 PSI (regulated by a pressure tank and switch), but we never have water pressure problems in the house. There are a couple of places where the diameters have changed already, and these correspond to where plumbers over the years have done work. When a new pressure tank was installed the pipe where it was patched in changed to 1 inch (from 1.25 inch). Where the water softener was installed (and this is of course before the hot and cold split) the diameter was reduced to 3/4 inch... so that is a bottle neck that is preceded and followed by 1.25 inch pipe. And finally where the water heater was installed the diameter is 3/4 inch. The water heater outlet then patches into the old pipe which goes up to 1 inch diamter, and then my bathroom hot water feed branches off of that at 3/4 inch. I was thinking about changing that 1 inch pipe to 3/4 inch the whole way for the hot water. I'm not sure it will make a huge difference. It's a 14 foot run. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated, THANKS.