I am impressed with the attention to detail, the thickness of the metal walls and the ground cage. I have never installed a lamp post like this, nor has hubby. So it was a pleasant surprise when we opened this up and saw it. I had imagined a thinner pole with some kind of half thought-out mechanism for attaching it to the ground. So, it was truly a surprise when I saw and handled the ground cage and the pole itself. The ground cage is meant to be set in the concrete (a lot of concrete in our case) so that the weight of all that cement and aggregate counterbalances the moment arm at its worst. This specific cage is a collapsable but rigid cube with one end threaded and coated in vinyl to protect those threads from the cement as it all gets poured into the Sonotube® or a big hole in the ground. Then, after the concrete sets and is adequately cured, the lowest portion of the post can be bolted down tightly. Then the other parts get bolted together completely before raising them to be placed on the lowest portion. We already have a tenon and light to attach to this post and we plan on adding all this before raising it. We would do this now, but winter is here and we have to wait for spring for the ground to thaw and then we can get the hole dug. The pole is solidly built, all metal, and thickly coated in what appears to be a powder-coating. It has a subtle texture and reads as a matte or maybe semi-gloss finish. Either way, it is very easy to imagine how good it'll look. I expect we'll love it, once it's up, as much as we do now. In my opinion this pole kit is a good value and one we would whole-heartedly recommend.
