CBD's Copper Roof Cap Installation Instruction Page

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The stainless steel screws we provide and not as soft as brass screws, but they are noticeably softer then steel screws, so we strongly advise that you set the stainless steel screws using a special cordless impact driver. These drivers will set the SS screws much 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. Personally I like Makita's light weight BL144 impact driver with the new Lithium batteries best.

Opening the Crate:

Even though it may have a 'TOP' designation it should be safe to turn over in all direction, as the cap should be securely suspended inside the crate. I just write 'TOP' on the outside so it is hopefully upright while in transit with the truck is bouncing down the road.

To open the crate and safely remove the cap, you should have a #2 Phillips tip in a drill/driver to open wood crate, and a large garbage bag. I've clued, stapled, nailed, and screwed the thin plywood cover over the wood frame of the custom crate.

Crates shown here before they are sealed; partially open or not fully covered yet

1. Remove the tellow screws that are normally along the bottom sides of the crate. Then you can lift off the wood cover. Set the cover out of the way. Some of the larger crate would make a fun playhouse with window and door holes cut in the sides. It should crack apart easy enough.

2. You will find a zip-lock bag of screws, alignment nails, and new #3 Phillips tip in the crate. 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 base, it is recommended to wear clean gloves when handling the copper cap. It will help from getting finger print oils on the copper, that will tarnish sooner than the rest of it's surface making it look spotty. It will also help you from the possibility of getting cut from any sharp edges of the copper your fingers may find.

4. Use the crate to support the cap safely until you are ready to do the installation. It should lift straight up easily.

5. When finished, unscrew the rest of the wood frame apart if you want and set the boards aside and dispose of 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 blocks. That would raise the new cap up off the shingles and give the bottom edges some visual dimension. It can also be a great 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 invisible from the ground.

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

Lightning Rod Issue:

If you were to attach a large copper wire to these copper roof caps and run it all the way down to the ground and attach it to a metal water pipe or a grounding rod driven deep into the ground you would certainly make the roof cap into a lightning rod to attract lightning more than perhaps a nearby street lamp. My concern would be if that wire connection were to get loose over the next few decades, then was hit it could generate a great deal of heat and maybe start your building on fire. My understanding is that the static electricity of a lightning strike will follow the path of least resistance. The wood structure and asphalt shingles of most structures act as an insulator, so if it is not grounded it would not attract lightning at all, and I have not heard of any occurrences where this was an issue.

Interestingly houses do not seem to be a primary target of lightning strikes. Modern electrical Building Code requires all your electrical wiring system to be connected to a steel or copper grounding rod with a large 4 gauge copper wire. With all the house wiring well grounded through the fuse box this means any wiring up in the attic should act as a lightning rod. Your house wiring would be at far greater risk of attracting lightning strikes than an ungrounded turret roof cap, but this does not seem to be a big problem either for some reason.

I would advise that you do not bother to ground your turret roof cap. So far I have yet to hear of a single turret roof cap or a gazebo roof cap that was not grounded having had suffered a lightning strike, so I do not see this is an issue of concern by not grounding it. Although, I have heard of steel chimney pipes that had been hit and caused a serious house fire.

if you want to set up a near by lightning rod I would suggest you position it at least as far away from your house as you can. You could simply run a 4 gauge copper wire winding up the trunk of a near by tree; as high as you can get it up through the branches. Then attach the bottom of that wire to a grounding rod down near the base of the tree. This would be very inconspicuous, but may not be best for the tree's health in the event of a strike. But better to loose that tree than your house. Not to mention the shear terror of the loud crashing sound you'd suffer with a strike on your house.

Do We Need a Roof Vent?
You many not need a whole cupola on your roof, but sadly most trret and gazebo roofs are not vented at all. An open low slope gazebo roof may not need venting as badly, but there is a huge misnomer about this issue concerning closed turret roofs. All roofs need proper venting, the same as the rest of your roof. If you want it to last and provide decent comfort inside venting is essentual. It is also important to make sure cool air can get in from below to circulate up through the top.

The real reason they are not vented is because of shear ignorance and laziness to work a weather tight vent into the design at the peak. The funny thing is how with all these rafter beams conjoining in the center most Framers do not know how to build these right with or without a vent. 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 many Framers it's all they can do to read a tape measure correctly. Problem solving this issue is a foreign subject to them and there's very few Craftsmen left to teach them.

The fact is it's 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.

For some strange reason very few Carpenters realize how much easier it would be to join the stringers over an octagonal hub like the one shown below. This hub is made with common 2x6 studs cut 12" to 18" long. Then angle cut on the long sides at 22.5 degrees on both sides and assembled into this simple hollow core to allow for around 100 square inches of vent through the center. It is 13.5" wide OSD. There's not be enough room inside to swing a hammer, so they will tell you it will not work, but nails are for Neanderthals, so that would not be the right way to attach the stringers any way.

All they have to do is attach the rafters to the outside of this hub with deck screws from the center out. I recommend they predrill the screw holes with a 3/16" drill bit and set the screws in the holes before assembly. That will avoid the possibility of them cracking this hub and destroying it. This makes it easier to fit the drill inside when the screws are already run 1.5" in those holes. With a small head impact driver there will be plenty of room inside. With the right procedure it's quite easy, but but this logic does not seem to come naturally to most carpenters, so we need to help them along to learn their craft.

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-assembled: glued and screwed together, then shipped to you for just $75 to $150 php depending on the custom details to fit your needs. This can be put in after the fact, but it's not as easy to do that way, so do not accept their claim: it cannot be done, because it can be done. I've done it.

As long as the metal roof cap is large enough to cover the vent holes by a good 3" to 6" margin on both sides (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 this 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 again.

Hidden screened roof vent under our copper caps for a low profile cupola:
We have stainless steel screen and painted wood spacer blocks w/3" deck screws to ship with your roof cap order: $75 to $125 for the set, or we can still ship kit out to you separately for $150. Here is link to this installation instructions PDF file for easy printing: http://copper-by-design.com/rc/Capinstall.pdf

Have the installer follow these instructions:

(a) Without my simple vent kit preassembled inside your new roof cap you can still cut some 2x3 or 2x4 blocks 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 staggered top and bottom with a 3/16" drill bit and counter sink, so the screws won't crack the block or touch the copper. 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 5/32" drill bit. Wax the top of these blocks to make sure they will not stick the the underside of your copper roof cap.
(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 and spritz the glue with a little water just before you set the copper roof cap on the roof peak to activate the expanding glue, while doing your best to make sure the cap is centered, level, looks balanced on all sides, and you have the seam towards the rear where it will not be seen. If you don't have the weathervane/finial support pipe built into your cap you can use a special dial level device to compare the opposing sides to make sure it is straight. If not 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 couple hours or so to let the glue set.
(d) when the glue is fully set; remove the SS screws from the cap and set the roof cap safely aside. Then you can use the 3" deck screws to secure the bocks to the roof.
(e) Then peal off the roofing shingles above the blocks up to the center peak. Cut the plywood just above the blocks to remove it up to the peak, or use a 3" to 4" wide hole saw to cut vent holes. You can cover the vent holes with some screen that has holes larger than common window screen, so it does not get clogged with dust over the next decade before reroofing is needed.
(f) You can place a dab of caulk around each screw hole just under the cap, but it should not be needed and may make removal difficult when the roof has to be reroofed later on. 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.

Close-up of the bug/bird filter, which is a 6x6 stainless steel screen I use shown with a hammer head to show dimension. This is not as fine as a window screen weave, but a lot stronger. This is so the screen will not become as plugged up with dust over the next few decades left uninterrupted.

Detailed Installation Instructions w/o hidden roof vent:
It is not very complicated, but here are some suggestions. I do not mean to be condescending here to anyone who knows most of this. I just want to be as clear as possible for the novice. Here is link to this installation instructions PDF file for easy printing: http://copper-by-design.com/rc/Capinstall.pdf

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. If the roof is not a 12/12 pitch or more 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 the installer will probable need to some how remain on the ladder at all times, since there is no place to tie off above where they will be working. A large diameter rope strung around the roof connected to a safety harness may help for safety, but should not be relied on for support and can damage the shingles.

2. If you are not installing the wood supports for a hidden roof vent just before installation you may want to add some foam weather stripping near the bottom edge of the cap to seal out insects from nesting inside the cap. You should not need to add any caulk, as this will make it very difficult to remove the roof cap without damage decades later when the roofing has to be replaced. That's why I provide you with the stainless steel screws that have a rubber washer under the screw head to seal it to the copper metal. Roofing is all about hiding the fastener from the elements as well as from sight, but in this case that is simply not an option, so any exposed fastener should be no less than stainless steel screws w/rubber washers.

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, where it will be less noticeable. Press the cap down firmly. If there is no finial/weathervane support pipe built into this cap 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 down there on the ground to direct the placement.

If your cap has a finial or weathervane support pipe in it leave the pipe cap over the pipe to keep it clean and dry. 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 continue holding firm pressure down on the top as you pre-drill your first holes with an 5/32" drill bit and insert one of the nails (provided) in that hole to hold the alignment of that hole. The nail should slide in and out easily with your fingers. Pre-drilling the holes will also allow the stainless steel screws go in easier and less likely move or to strip out the screw head slot. The cap may shift, messing up your alignment during this process, so recheck the level between drilling holes and setting the alignment nails. You may want to 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 provided using the new #3 tip also provided. 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. The weathervane will have a set of instruction for assembling it. When you are ready to place the weathervane in the support pipe you will need a good compass up there to set the directionals. Set the shaft in the pipe and mark the shaft at the top of the pipe. Lift it up an inch or so and slide the copper shims beside the shaft and ease it back down until it seems tight. Tap in the copper shims down further with a small flat blade screw driver to lock the shaft in and keep the directionals from rotating in the wind. For a finial just slide it over the shaft and the coupling will seal to the top of the pipe without the need for any sealer. You will want to be able to remove it easily if it were to get damage or you find a decoration you like better some day.

7. Then of course get yourself and tool safely to the ground and admire your work. It should be trouble free until the roofing shingles need replaced. It should not even need to be cleaned. The copper should actually help keep the roofing below clear of moss and mildew.

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. We would also like to hear your thoughts on how the installation went, so we can better advise clients in the future. That kind of feedback has helped refine this set of instructions over the years.

Helpful Roofing Information
For some valuable advice with regards to roofing and rain management issues check out our:

(a) Gutter Installation
(b) Gutter Debris Protection Options
(c) Roofing Quality Standards
(d) Chimney Flashing
(e) Moss Control & Treatment

web pages for answers and solutions that could save you thousands of $ and a great deal of anguish.

If you do find this information very helpful, feel free to send us a $ tip for the assistance we so freely have published on the web here for your benefit, like you might tip a waitress. Heck, send us a gift certificate for a candle lit dinner for two.