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50080
Why is copper roof brown, not green?
September 16, 2008
We installed a copper roof on our dome home, about 20 years ago.
Except on a spot where wall boarders urinated on it, it has not
turned green. It has the color of an old penny. Aside from
aesthetics, is there any advantage in turning it green?
Cliff Skelton
- Mount Vernon, WA

September 26, 2008
Probably local climate is too dry and relative humidity is
low(under 40% )-in that case formation of natural patina is much
longer.Hope it helps and good luck!
Goran Budija
- Zagreb, Croatia
September 30, 2008
Cliff,
As you know, the Washington State climate is far from dry, so low
humidity does not apply here. If my geography is correct, Mount
Vernon is close to Similk Beach, so the air should contain an
adequate amount of salt. You may want to look up the roofing material
specs, or contact the mfg to see if there was protective coating
applied to the copper. Taking in consideration of the locale, the
roof should have turned a greenish color by now.
Mark Baker
Process Engineer - Syracuse, New York
First of two simultaneous responses -- October 1, 2008
Mark...I'm not so sure high humidity/ocean proximity will cause
green corrsion products on copper.
I know of condomiums right on the beach at Hilton Head Island which
have copper clad Mansard roofs, and are at least thirty years old.
They are 95% chocolate brown with only a few green streaks.
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Jeffrey Holmes,
CEF
- Spartanburg, SC, USA
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Second of two simultaneous responses -- October 1, 2008
The USEPA put a copper roof on a new building a few years back and
is less than one block from the Pensacola Bay and less than 1 mile
from the Gulf of Mexico. In about one year, the roof turned a nice
chocolate brown color except for the areas where they soldered it and
got excess flux on the roof.
Most of the roofs at UWF turned a green (built about 1964).
I think that it has more to do with the alloy of copper than anything
else.
Check with the original metal MFG.
James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
October 25, 2008
I remember watching a documentary on copper, copper will turn
brown for 20 -100 years. At which case the green color will start to
appear as the patina ages and starts to increase the copper.
Their are commercial products that can speed up this process and
create a natural patina within minutes.
Memento Mori
- Silver Spring, MD, USA
October , 2008
Hi, Memento. Thanks for that theory; it sounds feasible to me
because there is an awful lot of old green stuff out there.
Regards,
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Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey
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November 15, 2008
Well, to create a nice Patina-Layer it needs more then just
chloride.....what you can try to do is: Make a 10%
Ammoniumsulfate-Solution, apply on the your roof (consider
pre-treatment) and let it dry on air and observe what will happen.
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Dominik Michalek
- Mexico City, Mexico
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July 2009 -
Seeking Job in Australia, Preferred NSW-Sydney
Area
Hello to all, might anyone read this
inquiry, I'd like to move to Australia for personal reasons.
Therefore I look for a company to hire me as Electroplater.
Have 13+ years experience in Waste Water Treatment, Plating
Technologies, R&D, Project Management, Plant Management,
Service, Training, Analytical. Most experience in
Automotive, PCB and Rotogravure processes. I hope someone
can help me. Thanks in advance.
Regards, Dominik_Michalek at hotmail.com
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