George Matthews
09-29-2005, 4:49 PM
Like many freestanding garage workshop owners, I insulated and heat/air condition my shop. I installed a sheetrock ceiling and insulated it last Winter. I installed a folding ladder so I could access the roof space. The garage was built with eve ventilation, but nothing at the roof peak to vent the VERY hot and humid air. First I looked at the simple, but effective under-the-eves (near the peak) vents, but thought that wasn't enough of a challenge. Huh!
Then I came across this site...A wonderful collection of Cupolas!
Weather vanes of Maine (http://weathervanesofmaine.com/)
"I can build one of those..." and so I did. Like many things in life, not knowing the depth of a project is often better ;)
Many of those Cupolas that you see are more decoration and no function. Mine had to look good and vent!
I started by creating a detailed, full scale plan.
The Cupola is built in three parts. Top, vent and base. This also makes the installation easier, in that the base is installed over the hole in the roof first and the other pieces can be safely dragged up the roof and mounted.
An early design decision was to use copper sheet for the roof. However it is VERY expensive, close to $10 ft2. I swung by my local salvage yard and found some perfectly good 'scrap' for what amounted to $1 ft2.
I built most of the structure from 2x6 rough pine, and milled down pieces to suit. The roof truss are 2x4 spruce, and the plywood 3/8 spruce. Anything exposed and unpainted was coated with Woolman preservative.
I reasoned that the louvered vent finished size may vary a few millimeters so I built them first. Then the remaining vent support frame. I used Titebond III for most joints, with a few brads/clamps to hold the pieces until the glue cured. The entire vent section was painted prior to assembly.
The roof construction was a project all by itself. I cut the roof truss on a bandsaw, and 'fine tuned' the bevels with a belt sander. The bevel angle changes as you reach the peak ( which was part of the fun ).
Attaching the copper to the truss wasn't that difficult. I laid the sheet against the truss and maked with a felt marker and cut the copper with tin snips. I then bent the 'lip' by hand between pieces of lumber. It is critical that the drip edge actually 'drips' and doesn't drizzle on the wood. A gap of 8 mm between the drip edge and the frame is reasonable. The copper is attached with 1 1/2 brass screws at the top of every 'leaf' covering the siliconed truss bevel. BTW, it's better to form a template for the corners and leaves from aluminum/tin flashing, then flatten and use it as a cutting template for the copper.
Once I approached the peak of the roof, the real fun began! I noticed that the commercial built cupola's use a fair bit of clear silicone to seal and that seemed reasonable. The design called for a copper ball at the peak. My wife and I spent what seemed like a great deal of time trying to find a copper ball, until I realized that it would be nearly impossible to cut a 3/4 hole in it. That led to "how to hammer copper" learning curve. After Googling the web, I soon learned that heating the sheet to red hot softens copper and it is easier to form ( pound with a hammer).
Well... It took four evenings of heat/pound/heat to produce two 'bowls'. I then made a joining strip of copper to help round it out. :rolleyes:
You may notice a short piece of 3/4 copper pipe in the photo. When I assembled the top a length of pipe was pushed into a hole in the base.
The lower half of the copper bowl (with hole) was placed over the pipe protruding from the roof. The hole in the bowl is big enough to hold the last four leaves in place. I pumped in the silicone and drill a small vent for future water leaks just above the silicone level. The the joining strip and top of the ball. (Yes I should have taken photos, but that silicone seems to stick to everything) Whew... I then cobbled together some smaller pipe and steel rod to attach a weather vane. The bottom of the roof has a compound crown moulding frame that slips over the vent section. That was the roof!
Next the base and the raising!
Stay tune.
Then I came across this site...A wonderful collection of Cupolas!
Weather vanes of Maine (http://weathervanesofmaine.com/)
"I can build one of those..." and so I did. Like many things in life, not knowing the depth of a project is often better ;)
Many of those Cupolas that you see are more decoration and no function. Mine had to look good and vent!
I started by creating a detailed, full scale plan.
The Cupola is built in three parts. Top, vent and base. This also makes the installation easier, in that the base is installed over the hole in the roof first and the other pieces can be safely dragged up the roof and mounted.
An early design decision was to use copper sheet for the roof. However it is VERY expensive, close to $10 ft2. I swung by my local salvage yard and found some perfectly good 'scrap' for what amounted to $1 ft2.
I built most of the structure from 2x6 rough pine, and milled down pieces to suit. The roof truss are 2x4 spruce, and the plywood 3/8 spruce. Anything exposed and unpainted was coated with Woolman preservative.
I reasoned that the louvered vent finished size may vary a few millimeters so I built them first. Then the remaining vent support frame. I used Titebond III for most joints, with a few brads/clamps to hold the pieces until the glue cured. The entire vent section was painted prior to assembly.
The roof construction was a project all by itself. I cut the roof truss on a bandsaw, and 'fine tuned' the bevels with a belt sander. The bevel angle changes as you reach the peak ( which was part of the fun ).
Attaching the copper to the truss wasn't that difficult. I laid the sheet against the truss and maked with a felt marker and cut the copper with tin snips. I then bent the 'lip' by hand between pieces of lumber. It is critical that the drip edge actually 'drips' and doesn't drizzle on the wood. A gap of 8 mm between the drip edge and the frame is reasonable. The copper is attached with 1 1/2 brass screws at the top of every 'leaf' covering the siliconed truss bevel. BTW, it's better to form a template for the corners and leaves from aluminum/tin flashing, then flatten and use it as a cutting template for the copper.
Once I approached the peak of the roof, the real fun began! I noticed that the commercial built cupola's use a fair bit of clear silicone to seal and that seemed reasonable. The design called for a copper ball at the peak. My wife and I spent what seemed like a great deal of time trying to find a copper ball, until I realized that it would be nearly impossible to cut a 3/4 hole in it. That led to "how to hammer copper" learning curve. After Googling the web, I soon learned that heating the sheet to red hot softens copper and it is easier to form ( pound with a hammer).
Well... It took four evenings of heat/pound/heat to produce two 'bowls'. I then made a joining strip of copper to help round it out. :rolleyes:
You may notice a short piece of 3/4 copper pipe in the photo. When I assembled the top a length of pipe was pushed into a hole in the base.
The lower half of the copper bowl (with hole) was placed over the pipe protruding from the roof. The hole in the bowl is big enough to hold the last four leaves in place. I pumped in the silicone and drill a small vent for future water leaks just above the silicone level. The the joining strip and top of the ball. (Yes I should have taken photos, but that silicone seems to stick to everything) Whew... I then cobbled together some smaller pipe and steel rod to attach a weather vane. The bottom of the roof has a compound crown moulding frame that slips over the vent section. That was the roof!
Next the base and the raising!
Stay tune.