Specialty Roofing • Bucks County, PA
Copper Roofing & Copper Roof Repair
Copper bay roofs, porch roofs, valleys and gutters. Soldered by hand, built to outlive the rest of the house.
- Hand-soldered seams, not caulk
- Bay, porch, dormer and turret roofs
- Copper gutters, valleys and standing seam panels
- Natural patina or pre-weathered finish
New Hope • Solebury • Buckingham • Upper Makefield • Washington Crossing • Doylestown • Newtown
What this work looks like
Copper is used on the parts of a house that have to last and have to look right: bay roofs, porch roofs, turrets, valleys and gutters. The work is metal work, and the seams are where it is won or lost.
What this material does well
- Very long life with no coating to repaint
- Seams can be soldered into one solid sheet of metal
- Bends around curves and bays that shingles cannot cover
- Ages to a patina instead of just looking old
Where it actually fails
- Seams sealed with caulk instead of solder, which opens up
- Copper fastened with the wrong metal, which corrodes
- Nail holes and pinholes from old repairs
- Panels with no room to expand, which buckles them
- Where copper meets another metal or pressure-treated wood
How the roof gets checked
1. Look at the seams
Soldered seams are one piece of metal. Caulked seams are a repair waiting to fail. Which one you have decides the job.
2. Check what it is fastened with
Copper needs copper or compatible fasteners and clips. Mixed metals eat each other.
3. Check the wood underneath
If water has been getting through the seams, the deck under a bay or porch roof is often the real repair.
4. Repair or rebuild the section
Small pinholes and open seams can be soldered. A panel that is buckled or full of old holes is usually better rebuilt.
What changes the price
We do not post prices, because a roof nobody has looked at cannot be priced. These are the things that make the job bigger or smaller.
- • Size and shape of the area, since curves take more labor
- • Whether the existing copper can be saved and soldered
- • Copper material cost, which moves with the metal market
- • Deck or framing repairs underneath
- • Access and staging around porches and bays
Questions homeowners ask
- Can copper be repaired, or does it all get replaced?
- Sound copper with open seams can often be soldered back together. Metal that is thin, buckled or full of old nail holes is usually replaced as a section.
- Will it turn green?
- Bare copper weathers to brown and then to green over many years. Pre-weathered finishes exist if you want that look sooner.
- Is caulk ever okay on copper?
- As a temporary stop, yes. As the actual seam, no. That is the repair that brings people back in a few years.
- Can copper gutters go on a shingle roof?
- Yes, and a lot of people do it for the look and the life. The roof material does not have to be copper.
Straight talk: Copper prices move. Any number you get is tied to material cost on the day it was quoted, and it should say so.