CBD's Bentz Turret Roof Caps

These were made for our clients Alex and Debra Bentz in Avella, Pennsylvania. Here's a couple shots I got of their house about 2.5 years later. I made up a pair of 8 sided turret roof caps for their small and large turrets on the house they were building.

They had first asked me to make a pair of identical roof caps, but after I explained how it might look better to have them different sizes; given these turrets were different by a 5' 8" margin. They agreed that would be the best route to take and opted for these full scallop style tails w/different size Morgana style finials as well.

Cutting Out the Main Base Cap

Here's the shots I took to share with clients as I was working on their order. Their turret roofs have a steep pitch of 21/12, so I made them to match that roof angle, which takes some careful math to make sure the template is made just right, so these will fit their turrets.

Here is all 8 sides of this roof cap base section drawn out on the 3' wide copper sheet to have the advantage of only 1 seam. It may be a more practical use of the copper sheet to alternate these pie section, so there was very little waste, but this will give this roof cap a much cleaner look and stronger than attaching all 8 pieces together. It also will be much less likely to ever leak being more seamless.

As you see here I went to extra trouble to make this roof cap all in one single piece, so there is only the one seam in the back. I feel this is an important advantage to have fewer seams than to better utilize the sheet of copper. This seam should hardly be noticeable once this cap is mounted 3 stories high and tarnished just a few months later.

Forming the Main Base Cap

Attaching the Finial Support Pipe to the Main Base Cap

I just recently started to add this smaller 3/4" cap to the bottom of the support pipe, then add another larger 1.25" pipe cap over the reducer for something to rivet through. That way there is 2 thick layers of copper under the brass rod inside, and much less chance of this leaking from the rivet holes. These shots below show the tip of the base cap prepared to hold the finial support pipe firmly in place.

Then it is attached to the tip of the base cap with 8 long rivets and a special silver solder. I then caulk over this and cover the caulk with this special gaffer's tape to make sure there is no possibility of this ever leaking a century from now.

Forming the Steeple cone and Attaching it to the Main Base Cap

I cover the base cap with this matching steeple cone that is riveted to the base cap through the tab bent under the bottom edge of the steeple cone for hidden fasteners. This steeple cone is to hold the top of this finial support pipe in place for many decades through the harshest wind storms.

Pre-installing Hidden Vent Blocks Under the Main Base Cap

Here's both the large and small roof cap from underneath.

The larger 13' 9" wide turret's roof cap was made 1/6th scale at 28" wide plus the scallop style tails dropping below that for a final width of 36". The smaller 8' 1" wide turret's roof cap was 17" wide plus the tails. The lager one was 48" tall without the finial or brass rod.

Both Sets of Finials and Turret Roof Caps

The cost for both these roof caps made with 20oz copper w/o finial =
$893.33 - for the copper w/crate & shipping
+ $250 - $125 X 2 for both weathervane/finial support pipes built in
+ $150 - $75 X 2 for the set of painted blocks w/screen for hidden roof vent
= $1,293.33 Sub total
- $129.33 10% discount for large order and providing all the info needed in their first e-mail
= $1,164 Sub total
+ $425 - 5" X 28" and the 7" X 40" Morgana style finials (shown) w/solid brass rod w/15% discount
= $1,589 Grand Total delivered

They saved $204.33 in all

That's $1,589 in all with the crate and shipping.