CBD's Copper Roof Cap Installation Instruction Page

Roof Cap Installation Instructions

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We strongly advise that you set the stainless steel screws using a special cordless impact drill. These drivers will set these SS screws 10 times better than a standard drill without damaging the Phillips slot, and much better than even a hammer drill. Trust me on this one. If you have not yet bought yourself an impact driver, do so. It will be one of your best investments. Makita makes a nice light weight one with the new Lithium batteries.

The Lightning Rod Issue

If you do run a large copper wire down to the ground and attach it to a iron water pipe or a standard 10' grounding rod driven into the ground your would certainly attract lightning more than most any street lamp. My worry would be if that wire connection were to get loose over the next few decades and generate a great deal of heat during a lightning strike and start your house on fire. My understanding is that the static electricity of a lightning strike attempts to follow the path of least resistance. The wood structure of the house acts as an insulator for the most part. Interestingly I have not heard much about houses being a primary target, so this does not seem to be a large problem, but your house wiring would be at far greater risk of attracting a lightning strike. Which is one reason modern electrical building code requires the electrical system to be connected to this steel grounding rod with a large 4 gauge copper wire.

We advise that you do not bother to ground your roof cap. I have yet to hear of a turret roof cap that was not grounded having had a lightning strike, so I do not see this is much of an issue of concern.

Opening the Crate:

To open the crate and safely remove the cap, you should have a box cutter, a large garbage bag, and a #2 Phillips tip in a drill/driver for the wood crate frame. We staple cardboard or use a thin plywood over the wood frame to appease the shipper and keep the cap clean. Even though it has a 'top side' designation on the cardboard, it should be safe to turn it over in all direction, as the cap should be securely suspended inside the crate. We just wrote "top" on the outside so it is hopefully upright while in transit and bouncing around on the road.

1. Remove the black screws to remove the outer wood shell, or just peal off the cardboard cover for inspection. If that does not seam to work, you can use the box cutter to cut it open just on the inside of the corner lines of staples, and tear it off the wood frame. Don't worry about getting all the cardboard off or removing all the staples unless you want to, but it would be good to get it off the corners to get to the screws that may be hidden. Get the outer shell out of the way and stuff it in the garbage bag.

2. You will find a zip-lock bag of screws and new #3 Phillips tip taped outside the cap or on a cross board. Go ahead and remove them and set them aside where they won't get lost. There should be a couple extra stainless steel screws in the bag incase some of the screws get dropped and lost or the Phillips slot gets worn during installation.

3. When you are ready to do the cap installation and want to remove the cap from the crate, it is recommended to wear clean gloves when handling the copper cap. Even though the protective plastic film is still on the outside of the copper, it will help from getting finger print oils on the copper, that will tarnish sooner than the rest of it's surface. It will also help you from the possibility of getting cut from any sharp edges of the copper. Then use a #2 Phillips tip in a drill/driver to remove the screws on each side of the top frame board that is supporting the tip of the cap. Rotate that board until free and lift it up and out of the frame to free the cap from the frame. They are Deckmate screws that have their own special tip, but the #2 or #3 tip should still work.

4. Use the crate to support the cap safely until you are ready to do the installation. If the cap does not wiggle and lift out easily, you may need to remove some of the screws in the side of the bottom frame to split that frame apart the to raise the boards. There are screws in the corners of the frame and it is glued together, but it should crack apart without too much trouble. Unscrew the rest of the wood frame apart if you want and set the boards aside.

5. When finished, dispose of the cardboard and wood as you see fit

6. You could use a few of the crate frame boards and the deck screws to make a frame to screw down to the roof and then screw the cap to those boards to raise it up off the shingles and give the bottom edges some visual dimension, and it can be a good way to add a hidden roof vent there at the peak. It will also help to give you a nice solid flat surface to attach the cap onto, so there is less irregular bulges or indentations from the screws after being tightened down. If you cut the bottom edge of the boards at a 45 degree angle and paint them dark brown or even black, that will help make them not seen from the ground.

Note: We place some black gaffer's tape inside the cap over the rivets & caulk, so you should not remove it.

Roof Vent:
Sadly these turret and gazebo roofs are rarely vented. An open gazebo roof may not need venting as badly, but there is a huge misnomer about this issue concerning closed turret roofs, but these roofs still need proper venting if you want them to last and provide decent comfort inside.

The real reason they are not vented is only because of shear laziness to work that into the design with all the rafter beams conjoining in the center. For a roof vent it requires a solution that will not leak in stormy weather. Carpenters and roofers are not sheet-metal workers. They know nail-guns and saws. For some workers it is all they can do to read a tape measure correctly. Problem solving this issue is a foreign subject to them. It is a lot easier to just pretend venting is not needed, knowing that the homeowner a decade later cannot legally come back on them for their negligence.

Few carpenters realize how much easier it would be to join the stringers over an octagonal channel like this made with 1' to 1.5' long 2x6 angle cut at 22.5 degrees on both sides and assembled into a hollow core to allow for around 100 square inches of vent through the center.

If at the time that you are reading this it is not already too late we can make you one of these in a kit or pre-assembles: glued and screwed together, then shipped to you for $75 to $150 php:

As long as the roof cap is large enough to cover the vent holes by a good 6" margin (depending on the roof angle), this is a good time to rectify this oversight and add venting at the top of the roof. You may also need to see what can be done about fresh air entering that attic space at the bottom, so that fresh air can heat up and rise out the top to draw in more fresh air in through the bottom.

Close-up of the stainless steel screen with a hammer head to show dimension.

A Hidden Roof Vent Under the Cap Option:
We have stainless steel screen and painted wood spacer blocks w/3"
deck screws to ship with your roof cap order: $50 for the set,
or we can still send it to you separately for $80.

Have the installer follow these instructions:

(a) Cut some 2x3s or 2x4s about 6" to 9" long with a 45 degree angle cut on the ends. Pre-drill the holes for a pair of 3" deck screws for each block top and bottom with a 3/16" drill bit, so the screws won't crack the block. Primer and paint them dark brown or black, so they are protected, but more importantly; so they are not seen under the copper cap. Then pre-drill the pilot holes for the SS screws in the center of the blocks with a 1/8" drill bit.
(b) The cap will secure to the blocks using the dome head #3 Phillips stainless screws and the #3 tip we provide. Remove the SS screws from the cap. The stainless steel screws will not stick to a magnetized screw tip. You will lose a lot of screws that way if you try to place the screw on the tip and drive it in. Screw the SS screws into the cap and in each block under the cap, and make sure they are aligned pointing to the center before tightening them.
(c) Use expanding Gorilla Glue on the bottom of the blocks, then set the copper roof cap on the roof peak; while doing your best to make sure the cap is centered, level, and looks balanced on all sides. You can use a special dial level device to compare the opposing sides to make sure it is straight. You may want direction from a person with a good eye there on the ground to see the roof cap from different angles. Wait a day or so to let the glue set.
(d) after a day or two when the glue is fully set; remove the SS screws again and set the roof cap safely aside. Then you can use the 3" deck screws to secure the bocks to the roof .
(e) Then use a 3" to 4" wide hole saw to cut vent holes at least 3" to 6" up from where the bottom of that roof cap edge will be. Cover the vent holes with some sort of screen, or you could staple the screen along the bottom edges of the blocks all the way around their perimeter.
(f) Place a dab of caulk around each screw hole just under the cap. Remount the roof cap again on the blocks. use the nails to help find the pilot holes and hold the cap in place until you are ready to screw it down for the final time. Remove one nail at a time and start the screw in that hole with your fingers before you go to drive the screw in with your drill. Turn the head of the screw clockwise looking down on it to get it started in the hole. Then use the drill to screw it down to the block.

There you have your screened hidden roof vent.

Detailed Installation Instructions:
It is not very complicated, but here are some suggestions.

There are extra stainless steel screws, alignment nails, and a new #3 Phillips tip to fasten the new cap to the roof included in a small zip-lock bag.

1. Accessing a steep roof peak is difficult and dangerous. A high-lift boom may help get the cap safely up there, but they are expensive to rent and do not help much to actually position the cap and fasten it to the roof. One thing that should greatly help you (or the installer) up there is to have some foam cushion pads to place on the roof. Just like couch cushions without the cloth cover or camping pads. Just raw foam cushion. In this case thicker is not better. Just 2" to 3" thick is plenty. It will also help keep the roofing shingles from getting scuffed up. If the roof is steeper than a 12/12 pitch (or a 45 degree angle) this many not help and they will need to some how remain on the ladder at all times. A large diameter rope strung around the roof connected to a safety harness will help for safety, but should not be relied on for support and can damage the shingles.

2. Just before installation and if you are not installing the wood support ring first, you may want to add a line of caulk near the bottom edge of the cap to seal out insects from nesting inside the cap, or use a bit of foam weather stripping just above the screw line. You should add a dab of clear silicone caulk on the inside of the cap around and under the screw holes to help seal around the screw. We recommend the ProSeal 34 caulk.

3. When you are able to access the roof peak safely, carefully raise the cap up there to the peak and place it on the roof top with the seams of the cap to the back side of the roof. Press it down firmly. You can use a special dial level device to compare the opposing sides to make sure it is straight, or at least have someone with a good eye for this there on the ground to direct the placement.

If your cap has a finial or weathervane support pipe in it, you will need to set the cap level with the straight 3/4" shaft inserted in the pipe and check that for vertical level on at least 2 different sides 90 degrees apart. The shaft may fit too loosely to get a good reading, so you can add a band of electrical tape on the bottom of the shaft. Just enough to have it not move much side to side, but still slide down into the pipe freely. Another band of tape on the shaft near the top of the pipe, so you can get a good reading with the level.

4. When you feel that you have the cap set in place, hold firm pressure down on the top as you pre-drill the holes with an 1/8" drill bit. That will let the stainless steel screws go in easier and less likely to strip out the screw head slot. You can insert one of the nails (provided) in each hole right after drilling to hold the alignment of that hole. The nail should slide in and out easily with your fingers. The cap may shift, messing up your alignment, so have an ice pick type tool handy to re-find the hole if the cap does shift during this process.

5. The cap will secure to the roof using the wide dome carriage head #3 Phillips stainless steel screws and the #3 tip we provide. The stainless steel screws will not stick to a magnetized screw tip. You will lose a lot of screws that way if you try to place the screw on the drill tip and drive it in. Do one screw hole at a time. Remove a nail and start the screw in the hole with your fingers before you go to drive the screw in with your drill. Turn the head of the screw clockwise looking straight down on it in order to get it started, and then use the drill to screw it into the roof.

6. When you are not ready to install , set the pipe cap over the pipe to keep it dry. When you are ready to place the weathervane or finals in the support pipe: set the shaft in the pipe and mark the shaft at the top of the pipe. Lift it up a couple inches and smear caulk on the shaft under that line. Ease the shaft back down and tap in the copper shims to lock the shaft in and keep the shaft from rotating. With a weather vane, you will need a good compass up there to set the directionals. Follow the instruction for assembling the weathervane, or just slide the finial over the shaft.

7. Then of course get yourself and tool safely to the ground and admire your work. Please send us photos of the installation, so we can display them on our web site, so others can have a better idea of how these will look on their roof before deciding what to order.