017. Aging a copper roof to a nice blue patina

Letter 0017

Aging a copper roof to a nice blue patina

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Q. Had a new copper roof installed over bay window on front of my new house. Question, is there a way to get the roof to evenly oxidize to that blue/green look in a few weeks or days. Short of that is there a material like a clear varnish to keep it looking new? Prefer the US Naval Academy's Bancroft Hall blue look, however. Any info appreciated, JBW

jack wildman

Hello,

Someone told me that copper roofing is not a good idea in the Washington, D.C. area because the acid rain breaks the copper down real fast. Is that true? Thanks,

Leonard C
- Arlington, VA

A. If you want your roof to look 100 years old overnight , just clean it with Wright's Copper Cream [link is to product info at Amazon], then take 0000 Steel Wool [link is to product info at Rockler] and rub gently. when roof is dry and clean apply straight Muriatic Acid [link is to product info at Amazon] with a bristle brush and a spray bottle (protect your hands). this will make your roof a nice patina green in hours.

Jasper Chambers
- Cool Ridge, WV

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I am puzzled by the impatience of people who had copper installed on their house and who want it to age 10 to 12 years within a few days. Copper is a very noble building material that requires cautious installation since it will remain waterproof for decades (80 years easily). Even if confronted to acid rain, it will outlast most roof materials. There actually are ways to accelerate aging, using acid bathing at the manufacturer's facilities, but not once installed. The colour obtained is darker than the light green commonly appreciated by most people. This process also stops the aging process as far as "looks" are concerned, resulting in copper that will never quite look like copper, even to the untrained eye.

Bruno Desrosiers
building consultants - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

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I also have a copper overhang on my house and I want to turn it green. I will follow the instructions in this forum. However, the overhang is currently brown. What must I do to prepare it to apply the solution?

Tadeusz K
homeowner - Toronto, ON, Canada

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I just had a custom copper roof installed on the new part of our home. It is not a standard style and all pieces had to be hand fabricated. The installers wore gloves but the finished product was very dirty, messy and full of finger prints. They assured me that it would all blend in and I would never see the finger prints. It has only been complete since September and it has started to turn almost black. On the contrary to most, I wanted my roof to eventually look brown while still looking like copper. I live in Reno, Nevada where it is very dry and was told it would take years for my roof to start to patina and I would probably never see it green as this takes many years. I was O.K. with this, but I have never seen a copper roof do this (it looks like black streaks) and they are insisting that this is the nature of copper. Can somebody please give me some advice or information on my situation.

Thank You,

Mary Kay Richter
homeowner - Reno, Nevada, USA