Rutland Architectural Blog

Sunday, July 31, 2011

To break up the monotony of large expanses of roof, especially non variegated roofing and oftentimes long unbroken rooflines, consider adding a roof top finial. Roof finials provide focal points of interest and accentuate your home or commercial building's roof and architecture. Finials and larger roof structures such as cupolas, domes, dormers and chimneys help to visually break up large expanses of roofing or long unbroken roof lines and make them much more attractive and interesting. Below are pictures first of plain monochromatic roofing and then pictures of more variegated roofing with roof finials and other roof structures.

metal rooflines shown with expansive metal roofing

Monochromatic - Non Variegated Roofing

copper finials - roof top finials shown being installed

copper finials - roof finials shown installed on top of building

Copper Finials on Top of Roof

roof finials - copper dormers and chimneys shown on large residence

roof finials - shown installed on top of high steep roof

Roof Finials - Roof Dormers and Chimneys

Roof finials are available in many shapes, sizes and materials. Finials can be simple, streamlined designs, contemporary designs, classic designs or very ornate and intricate designs. Finials can range from under a foot in height to 4 foot, 5 foot or even taller. Most roof finials are constructed from metal with copper and aluminum being the most popular finial materials. Aluminum finials are light in weight, lower cost and are available either in unfinished mill aluminum or can be custom painted to match or color coordinate with any building's trim or roofing. Copper finials are typically left unfinished and really dress up any architecture with copper's beautiful, elegant, timeless appearance. While copper does cost a bit more than aluminum and other materials, copper is also the most durable and longest lasting building material and requires no maintenance or painting. Therefore copper has proven to be a very cost effective material for finials, cupolas, dormers, vents, domes and other roof structures or accessories.

copper finial design with copper finial ball shown

Copper Finials - Roof Top Finials

roof finial design with copper finial ball shown

roof finial design with aluminum finial material shown

copper finial design with ornate copper finial balls shown

Roof Finial Copper - Aluminum Finial - Copper Finial

Rutland has over 50 roof finial designs available in a wide variety of sizes including both copper finials and aluminum roof top finials. Rutland also fabricates custom styles and sizes of roof finials according to customer specifications and drawings, including finials with weathervanes. In addition to roof finials, Rutland manufactures a wide assortment of styles and sizes of roof cupolas, roof vent dormers, roof domes, custom chimney caps and chimney pots. Rutland has extensive expertise in custom architectural metal and copper work and utilizes their in house CAD design, machine shop, TIG welding and professional paint shop facilities.

copper dome roof with copper finial design shown

copper roof dome with copper finial design shown

Copper Roof Domes with Copper Finials

7/31/2011 2:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Sunday, August 01, 2010

Roof Vent - Attic Ventilation - Gable Vent - Copper

Roof vents provide ventilation for the space underneath a roof. If an attic is present, roof vents, soffit vents and gable vents also provide attic ventilation. Roof ventilation and attic ventilation are necessary to help remove moisture in the air that may damage wood, insulation and other building materials underneath the roof, susceptible to damage or deterioration from moisture or condensation. The air conditioned living space underneath your roof or attic is usually at a much different temperature than the airspace underneath the roof or in the attic and can lead to condensation forming from humidity rising up from the living space below or especially in summer months from humid outside air. Winter attic ventilation must be sufficient to remove moisture vapor rising from the living space to the attic. In general, ventilation adequate for summer cooling is more than adequate for winter ventilation. Constant air movement or ventilation can help keep the building materials under a roof or in the attic dryer. In hot summer months, a cooler attic or space underneath your roof will also help keep trapped super heated air from pushing down into your living space and will promote more efficient cooling of your living space below. Attics or spaces under a roof can reach temperatures of 150 to 160 degrees F during a summer day, although outside air temperatures may only be 95 to 97 degrees F. The cooling load for a home air conditioning depends on the difference in temperature between the inside and outside air, and reduction of roof space or attic temperatures from 155 degrees to 105 degrees F will result in a significant reduction in cooling load. In a home with poor ceiling insulation, heat movement through ceilings may account for 30 percent or more of the total cooling cost. Heat movement through well insulated ceilings may still account for 12 to 15 percent of the total cooling cost. Roof shingles, roofing tile and other roof structure materials benefit from optimum roof ventilation, which can help prevent deterioration from this excess heat and lengthens the life of roofing. Natural cross ventilation for roofs is typically supplied with high mounted roof vents such as ridge vents or domed pot vents and low mounted roof edge vents or soffit vents, typically mounted in the overhangs (soffits or eaves) of a building. The cooler air enters through the low mounted soffit vents and exits through the high mounted roof vents, providing cross ventilation. Heated air becomes less dense and rises and wind movement around and over a home creates areas of high and low pressure. Natural cross ventilation utilizing this chimney effect and wind movement is the most common and energy efficient method of achieving lower attic temperatures and moisture control. Air powered turbine vents can provide increased ventilation over regular vents.

roof vent - domed pot vent shown in pure copper

Roof Vent - Copper Domed Pot Vent

turbine roof vent - copper roof vent turbine vent pictured

soffit vent - continuous soffit vent copper and square copper soffit vent with copper mesh shown here

Turbine Roof Vent - Copper Soffit Vents

A rough rule of thumb to figure out much roof ventilation is needed is to take the square footage underneath your roof and divide that by 300 (for new homes with good vapor barriers). That gives you the square footage of total ventilation opening or net free area required. About 60% of that total ventilation opening should be for low mounted roof vents or soffit vents and the other 40% for high mounted roof vents. For example say a home has dimensions of 40 feet by 75 feet and 3000 square feet of space under the roof. Divide 3000 by 300 to get 10 square feet of ventilation space or opening needed. 60% of that 10 square feet or 6 square feet should be low mounted or soffit vents and 40% or 4 square feet should be high mounted roof events. If there are no soffits or overhangs on a building then roof vents alone may be used but the recommended square footage of roof ventilation doubles. So in this example of a 40 foot by 75 foot, 3000 square foot building, 20 square feet of roof ventilation without soffit vents is suggested rather than 10 square feet with soffit vents. Older homes or those without good vapor barriers should use 150 (instead of 300) to divide into the total home square footage to get ventilation area. Local building codes specify the minimum attic ventilation requirements and while you should always at least meet building code requirements, a larger total roof ventilation area usually will provide even better performance.

dormer roof vent - arched roof dormer vent shown in pure copper

dormer roof vent - triangular roof dormer vent pyramidal shown in pure copper

Dormer Roof Vent - Arched and Triangular Copper

In addition to or otherwise in lieu of soffit vents, low mounted dormer roof vents may also be employed for their decorative touch and functional roof and attic venting.opening area required. Gable vents or attic vents such as the ones pictured below, whether they be round, octagonal, square, arched or triangular in shape also contribute to cross ventilation for roofs and attic spaces. A cupola mounted right at a roof's peak provides excellent roof and attic ventilation while also providing visual appeal and architectural interest. Roof dormers can be one piece metal dormers with flashing and louvers such as the copper roof dormers shown above or can be custom built dormers such as the one below. These roof dormers typically have a louvered vent opening similar to gable vents or wall vents and contribute to and provide some of the roof and attic ventilation

dormer roof vent - custom roof dormer vent with copper panel roof and copper louver vent shown here

Dormer with Copper Vent and Copper Panel Roof

attic vent - round gable vent shown in pure copper

gable vent - octagonal attic vent shown in pure copper

Attic Vent - Gable Vent - Copper Round and Octagonal

cupola - roof cupola- octagonal copper cupola with 8 sides pictured

cupola - copper cupola - roof cupola with 4 sides and copper finial shown here

Cupola Roof Vents - Octagonal and Square Copper

Rutland supplies a large assortment of metal roof vents, attic vents, gable vents and soffit vents. These roof and attic vents are available in elegant, durable, eco-friendly pure copper or other metals such as aluminum and paint-grip steel. Rutland carries many in stock standard sizes and also offers custom designs and custom sizes to meet project specifications. Dormer roof vents for roof ventilation with integral flashing are available in any size and cupolas which may be used for roof and attic venting are available in both standard and custom sizes with mounted finials and weathervanes available as a cupola option.