CBD's Finn Chimney Caps Page

This was a copper chimney cap we designed and built for Sean and Lindsey Finn for their new house in Vienna, Virginia. He first contacted me 12/23/11 and we swiftly worked out the details of this project through e-mails, and within that same day he had posted his 1/3 deposit through Paypal to schedule this in.

He suggested emblazing his company logo over the spark arrest screen as you see above. How do you think we did?

Here's the 8 pieces of the base/skirt support frame for this chimney cap we needed to build in hardwood and copper bonded together with expanding Gorilla Glue. This part is what anchors it down in high wind storms over their chimney chase. This is a unique process you will not find with any other shop.

This shows the 3 cross braces made before the pan is attached over the center. The flue collars have to be carefully placed and sized for their 3 flues.

This shows part of the columns without the arches between them yet. Each column is attached to the base with 24 rivets. These columns hold the sides of this 13ga stainless steel spark arrest screen in place. The screen also is held across the bottom edge with a channel formed in the outer edges of the pan. These SS screens are not just loosely set in these channels. They are fastened in with hundreds of copper rivets and SS screws, so they also become part of the structural integrity of this unit. This are already much more rigid.

Then the eaves are made and attached over the corner columns and cup the top edges of these SS screens and riveted and screwed into place, which adds a lot more strength to these structures. I also added more SS screws at the corners.

Then there's the 28' of roof support braces to make and attach with copper rivets and more SS screws. I believe this is a very important detail that is not done by most any other sheet metal shop, from what I've seen. I know they may not get a lot of snow there in Virginia, so these roof support braces are only about 18" apart for added strength.

Then after a couple weeks work on this project it is finally ready for the copper roof skins to attach over these braces and cup under the eaves. They are riveted down to the roof braces to help keep them from rattling in the wind. We also make a set of lift boards for the installation and roped this chimney cap down to the crate base.

This is the crate I built to carry our hard work safely on it's journey across the Country. The crate weighed almost as much as the contents. It is 43" wide X 90" long X 50" tall and weighed around 430# in all.

We got the separate weights as we worked on this while taking these digital photos to share with the clients most nights for their review as the progress continued:

233.5# - total weight
- 42.2# - wood in the base
- 26.8# - SS screen
= 164.5# - copper weight
X $24 rate per #
= $3,948 for the copper
+ $660 - 33 sq' of SS screen
+ $292.50 - for 19.5 ln' of 5/4X6 hardwood inside the base
+ $500 - custom wood crate
+ $650 - truck freight to VA residential delivery
= $6,050.50 grand total - less quoted ceiling cost for this project of $5,500