The 'Teresa Trainor' Custom Copper Sheet Metal Chimney Cap Photo and Description Page
Fairhope, Alabama (2/06)

Updated 3-12-2007

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This chimney cap is for a client named Mike and Teresa Trainor in Fairhope, Alabama, who lost their chimney cap in the Katrina storm. We did most of our correspondence with Teresa. She contacted us just after the first of the new year and we exchanged just over 100 e-mails in working this out over a couple months until she was able to share the installation photos with us.

The final design has a 6/12 pitch hipped roof and the base is 71.5" x 44". There is a pan built inside to shed rain that might blow inside under the roof. The cap was co-designed by us and the client. It took several diagram revisions to get the final design locked down.  As you will see here; we recreated this diagram with great accuracy and detail.

We weighed this to see what was the actual amount of copper used in this fabrication; and without the wood frame it weighed 182.5lb. Which divided by 1.25 equals 145.6 square feet of 20oz copper used in this chimney cap. We multiply this by our base rate of $25 which totaled $3,640 + $300 for the large wooden frame base. We spent another $65 on the engraved plaque she had requested be applied to the cap.

Cost: $4,000 delivered

There was a ceiling on the price of $4k, but we still wound up using a good deal more copper in this chimney cap than we had estimated.  So the building of the wood crate and the $300 shipping charge was pretty much free of charge to the customer. We worked on this for over 3 weeks and they saved about $1,000 on this.

Here is the e-mail we got from her just after the installation:

From: "Teresa S. Trainor" <tstrainor@bellsouth.n*t>
Subject: RE: YEA!!! We have installed the chimney cap!!! - 4 Pics
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2006

Yes! We got the cap installed today!!! It looks fantastic – everyone is raving about the work you did. One of the guys on site doing a custom ceiling in my family room said it was the finest copper fabrication he had ever seen in his life, and he is a seasoned craftsman. Attached are the installation pics.  We ended up using a lift truck as a crane.  The whole thing went very smoothly! It was very exciting. I cannot tell you how happy we are  with the end results of all of this.  You are truly to be commended! Thank you for a wonderful piece of architectural art.

It is designed to be mounted on this wooden chimney chase that is surrounded by bricks on 3 sides, so we also needed to make a custom wood base for the copper base section to gently rest on.

The base was made with 8 overlapping pre-primed 5/4 x 6 boards with a 2x3 inner support for the center section for under the columns. They are screwed and glued together with Gorilla Glue. The wood was angle cut at the top of the wooden frame on our table saw to better match the angle of the copper base section.

Here is one half of the copper base being formed. and set on the now painted wood support frame.

Here is the other half of the copper base attached to the first half. Then some custom arched copper cross braces installed in the center to support the pan that will go over it.

Here is the overlapping pan gong on and the flue hole being cut into the center 1/2" wider than the outside diameter of the flue. 

Then the 6" tall collar is sealed to the pan flanges.  Then the pan is riveted down to the base and the cross braces. You can see here the center set of 2x3s used to help support the weight of the pan and roof.

This shows the pipe attached to the sides of the base. This will add strength and also add a decorative touch. We custom cut each side pipe with a mitered cut on each end. Then riveted it from inside the base.

Here is the columns being built to support the roof. This was a special challenge to build these strong enough to withstand hurricane weather, so we used a set of 5 stainless steel bolts for each column to hold these columns in place, along with several rivets.

Here is the decorative trim being added to each of the columns.

This is a tedious process that takes a lot of time, but not a lot of copper that we can charge for.

It took several days just for this portion of the project.

Here is the support cross brace made for the roof framework to be mounted on.

We have to be mindful of how it will be seen from underneath, since that is how this will be seen most from the ground.
It needs to have a solid regal look to it.

Here is the roof framework being built over the sub-frame.

Then the roof skin is custom fit and attached to this framework.

As you can see; we have not yet secured the sub-frame on the columns

Here you can see the roof separate from the sub frame, and the wood frame has it's final black paint coat.

These are outdoor daylight photos for a better look at the details.

Here is the stainless steel screening over the flue collar we made with a copper top and bottom frame. The top screen frame dips down in the center to help divert the smoke to the sides. The bottom frame will help keep the SS screen edges from wearing holes in the pan and holds it in place. I wanted to make a square screen area to match with the square columns that also match the front of the house.

Here is the custom wood crate with a hardwood plywood skin over this framework. The whole top and sides lift off the crate base for removal when it arrives to it's destination. It is screwed to the base.

Here is the commemorative plaque that Teresa Trainor had requested early in the quote process. We had this sheet of copper engraved at the cost of $80 to this architectural art sculpture we had made. We riveted it on the back side of the chimney cap base, so it can be seen from the ground, but is not too obvious. So far she is the only client to even request this archival detail, so we have not seen the need to buy the tooling for making these plaques for all our projects. It is something we may look into some day, but for now it would be a $100 option added to the cost.

After over 3 full weeks of construction it is finally ready for delivery!

In these photos they had already secures the wood frame over the chimney top with the SS lag screws we provided. The rest speak for themselves. Thanks to Teresa for being so kind to share these photos with us.

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Below is a photo of our
Better Business Bureau's
NW Business Integrity Award
for the year 1998

1999 Better Business Award

We were also a 1997 finalist for this same award. See our referral web page to see how we managed to be honored with this special award

 

 

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