They burn at low temps, water jacket,wood doesnt burn properly ,smolders ,chimney way too low. You do not want to be on the recieving end of this device. If you dont have breathing problems YOU WILL. Burning eyes, sore throat ,cough, tight chest.The people using these devices are merely trying to heat the home they live ,BUT do not understand the problems they cause for neighbors downwind..... once installed they are not going to give in to neighbors being bothered by such a device. Local authorites ring their hands they never have encountered such an issue..

Its a deal with outdoor finish, a Person can go with man made stuff and agree with the many short falls involved with them different as they are from wood construstion in a few ways. Nice span job diyh. But really Folks keeping up a high grade project done with say..ipe or garapa..is about the same as washing and waxing your car. Now some Wallets get the fire irritates thing going on with Any work involved with Anything. Now to me its very relaxing to work on my own stuff I actually enjoy every min cleaning up my Sportster,mowing the lawn,keeping the finish up on my S American deck out back of Butler Manor and washing/waxing my 97 two door Tahoe. If you want to belive in a one time finish like that all I have to say is just go ahead on it,,there is no use going into this subject again. Anything worth while is going to require some Work. John Mon

Oh WOW! Thank you, each of you, for all the great info. Tibbrix - this is just a little, simple obelisk; he's building it mostly as a "test." He could not get the PT wood in these small sizes, and he did not want to have to rip larger pieces. So, he's using untreated. Once we get it all tweaked; and just as I want it; he said we'd get the pressure treated wood and do another one. This one will last several years; the trellis he made about 12 years ago is still going strong. I bring them into the garage for the winter. The directions we found on line showed a wonderful obelisk, simple to make, and just what I wanted. There were some flaws in the instructions. When he made the first panel it was far to tall and way too short. It looked more like a ladder than an obelisk. I told him I wanted it shorter, more narrow at the top and much wider at the bottom. He graciously took the two panels apart; cut the uprights down by 2 feet, made new templates, and attached the uprights inside the screws on the top template instead of outside of them as the instructions said. If anyone follows the link I'm posting, you might want to do a dry run of the first section to make sure it "fits." GryFalcon - Thanks for the info. We're new to decks and wooden garden structures and are grateful for all the info we can get. He's hoping to clean and re-stain the front deck this summer so I'll pass your info on to him. Nicole - your the second vote against Thompsons and I'm paying attention. We have both a Benjamin Moore and a Sherwin Williams dealer in Grand Forks; I'll be visiting them. I have to travel to Fargo to see a Home Depot; and that's nearly 150 miles, one way. Brushworks - I checked out the site for Arborcoat. They have a dark purple in a semi-transparent finish. I "see" my little arbor looking very pretty. Here's the instructions we're loosely following. The best part is there are no miter cuts. I'm still debating on what to use for a final. Birdhouse? Large teapot? Carved acorn? Make a garden obelisk for climbing plants

Livewire, there’s a distinct difference between snarky and pointed. My note was intended to end the business relationship and was appropriate given the informal nature of our correspondence. My response to Jeff was to exhibit agreement with the price of the door while objecting to the price of the transom. Secondly, you’ve assumed the installer is represented in my post which he is not. Much like the business of buying a door, the business of installing the door had me circumvent the retailer and their installers. In that process alone I saved approximately $400-$600 not including some additional rot repairs that don’t exit. So although this leg work can certainly be over whelming, if it saves me money and Im happy with the result, I don’t mind if I’m taken as what the English would call “snarky”. However, there’s an English virtue “mind the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves”, I’m hoping this one suites me precisely. Jeff didn’t get his feelings hurt, Jeff quoted me $250 in an email then sent a quote for $938. Jeff tried to increase his margin. Jeff can do that. Chris can go in another direction. Chris did that. If you don’t know, that’s snarky