Home owner, Rebecca Cipriani in Baltic, Connecticut contacted us on August 9 of 2004 to make her a copper roof cap for this turret, on her charming classic house she was having built.

She had purchased a copper finial from: http://homegarden-store.com/ and had it shipped to us, so we could integrate it into the cap she was having us create.  It came with a few dents in the upper cone and upper bulb ornaments, so we sent it back for a replacement.

This is the roof the new cap will go on with the new roofing on it.  Hence the walkboards you see there over the roofing on the left of the turret.

Here is the bottom section we cut out of the 10' x 3' sheet of 20oz copper for this turret roof cap.  The tabs are cut along the bottom edge of the soft scallop design she asked for.  They are to be folded over for a safety hem on the leading edge. 

Here we show the main section of the cap sealed and riveted together. It still has a clear plastic film over the bare copper to help keep fingerprints off of the copper.  The oil from fingerprints will cause early tarnishing and makes it tarnish in a rather spotty manner.  The plastic film will be pealed off after the final installation.

This cap was designed to sit pretty flat to the roof angle, leaving no room inside the cap for the support pipe for the finial.  The builder had drilled the top of the roof open for the finial, but with any stress of high winds pushing on the finial over the years will be sure to compromise the seal of the roof cap to the finial shaft.  We go to a lot of trouble to incorporate this all inside the roof cap design, so there is a good strong upper and lower support of this 11" copper pipe for the shaft of the finial support.

If we make the cap a lot steeper than the roof, this allows us to install the upper and lower support inside the hollow gap, as seen on 'Fabrication page 2' The secondary cap also adds a decorative touch, making the roof cap more distinctive, as you will see below.

The center of the lower-section has been cut into and bent outward for the bracing of the bottom of the copper support pipe that will hold the finial in place. The first picture to the left has the copper cap in the tip to set the size of the hole.  The right picture shows the stainless steel pipe clamp that holds the tabs tight to the cap after setting the vertical level.  Then the pipe, pipe cap, and roof cap are soldered together.

Here is the fabrication of the 50/12 pitch upper small cap used to support the top of the 3/4" copper pipe that will hold the finial steady in high winds. This smaller cap is 9.75" wide across the base, and 18" tall, but it only adds 10" to the height of the main cap

We bend the bottom edge inward and use that flap (as seen above) to rivet through the inside of the larger cap with 16 rivets to secure this smaller cap tightly, yet all the rivets are hidden (as seen below).

cost: $350 + $225 for the finial php

We send the client these digital photos of the progress each night to get their feedback of what they think and if they have any ideas or concerns.  In this case we were able to get it all done by working a full day on it and sending it off to the shipper the next morning, but we had been in contact about these details and knew we were in sync.

We cover this wood frame with cardboard, leaving an inspection hatch, so the shipper can see we are not smuggling contraband, per their requirements.  The finial was placed in a separate box.