A gazebo is an outdoor pavilion or tent like structure which are usually round, square or octagonal in shape. Gazebos are familiar sights, found just about anywhere, in parks, in gardens, back yards, on decks, on a lake or seashore, outdoor restaurants, etc. Gazebos have roofs but are open on the sides, sometimes with railings or balustrades and sometimes screened. A gazebo floor might be grass, stone, concrete, brick or raised wood deck. A gazebo’s base or deck and it’s optional railing usually trace or follow the bottom outline of the gazebo roof (round – square – octagonal – etc). A gazebo is often times free standing in an open area or can it be attached to another building or connected by decorative wall or path. Gazebos are very popular spots, especially in warmer weather, to rest, entertain, eat, relax and socialize. A gazebo provides shelter, shade and often seating and tables. Gazebos are unusually appealing structures and provide a most attractive and ornamental feature to a property’s architecture and landscaping. The most common gazebo is built out of wood with ordinary roofing shingles used on the roof. A simple metal or copper roof cap with finial might be found on top. A gazebo upgrade might involve a small cupola perched on top of the gazebo roof, once again with a roof finial crowning the very top. The ultimate gazebo roof is a copper roof made from copper tile or copper roof panels. A copper gazebo roof may be conical in shape, octagonal, bell shaped, pentagonal, pyramidal, domed or any number of other shapes.
Copper Gazebo Roof – Bermuda Style – Bell Shaped
Copper Gazebo Tile Roof has Copper Roof Cap and Finial Alternative Diamond Shaped – Copper Roof Tile
A roof top copper cupola can be positioned on the top of a gazebo providing additional architectural interest and can functionally help vent hot air out the top. A simple, rustic or ornate copper roof finial can crown the very top of the gazebo or cupola. Copper clad columns, copper fixtures and copper railing or balustrade provide additional sheer elegance to a copper gazebo. To make a copper gazebo even more inviting on cool evenings, a copper fire pit with or without copper vent hood would coordinate nicely. A copper gazebo roof, copper cupola, copper finial, copper balustrade (or copper railing) not only have divine aesthetics and AWESOME looks but will last a LIFETIME.
Copper Cupola with WeatherVane and Copper Railing
* Photos above courtesy Rutland Architectural Copper Work, whose copper artisans created the copper gazebo roofs, copper cupola, copper finials and copper deck railing shown above. Even the copper tile shown above is custom handmade and hand cut copper roof tile.
Fire pits and fire bowls have been around for thousands of years dating back to early man’s discovery of fire. An outdoor fire pit can simply be a pit dug into the ground to help contain and concentrate a fire for use in heating such as a camp fire, or to cook out or frequently in today’s world just for the ambience when socializing or entertaining. With technological advances, fire pits progressed to more elaborate structures comprised of stone, brick and/or metal. These modern fire pits or fire bowls, especially ones made of metal, are often shaped like a bowl and usually accompanied by a fitted fire pit cover or fire pit lid. A firepit with an integral stand can also be some what mobile. Today an outdoor fire pit is frequently used in a pool area, as a patio fire pit, outdoor room fire pit and also as a garden fire pit. There are many variations of fire pits and materials used to construct a fire pit. Metal fire pits with integral stands or set into a fire pit table are particularly easy to set up and start using. Copper fire pits or copper fire bowl as seen below are considered the premier metal choice for a fire pit. A copper fire pit, especially with matching pure copper fire pit cover, has a very elegant appearance, does not need painting, has excellent corrosion resistance, is extremely durable and weathers pleasingly with copper patina’s timeless beauty.
Copper Fire Pit
Copper FirePit – Custom Crafted and Ready to Ship
The 100% copper fire pit shown above has a bowl shape which helps to concentrate and focus the fire and heat. This copper fire pit also has a fitted cover using a copper mesh screen which helps to contain stray sparks and also helps reduce possible wind impact that might fan the fire or flames out of control. A copper fire bowl or fire pit can be free standing with it’s own legs or stand. A copper fire pit can also be set into a properly sized cut out on a table that is insulated or fireproof. A permanent stand or fire pit table can also be constructed from bricks, stone or concrete as shown in the pictures of an installed copper fire pit table situated pool side below.
Outdoor Copper Fire Pit Table Installed Poolside Copper Patio Fire Pit with Matching Fire Pit Cover
The popularity of a backyard outdoor fire pit is on the rise as a fire pit creates charming campfire ambiance in an outdoor room, on a patio, poolside or garden area. The circular design of a fire pit allow seating of friends and family 360 degrees around the fire pit to enjoy the cozy warmth and hospitable, congenial atmosphere of a blazing fire, especially on those cool, chilly nights. An above ground fire pit is also much safer than an in ground version, as there is little likelihood of falling in. Situate your fire pit on a sturdy, stable stand or foundation. Fire pits securely set into bricks, stone or concrete are not at risk of being knocked over. Please be careful not to over fill your fire pit with wood or coals, use a fire pit cover and always use safe lighting procedures. With safe usage, you will find yourself frequently gathering around your outdoor fire pit, possibly even more so than with an indoor fireplace.
* Custom 100% copper fire pit – copper fire bowl with pure copper fire pit cover as pictured above, manufactured by Rutland architectural copper craftsmen, available world-wide in any size, with or without a stand through Rutland Architectural Copper Work in Orlando, Florida
Rutland Gutter Supply added 9 leader heads to their large growing collection of leader head. Rutland has 64 decorative leaderheads now in stock to upgrade the finest aluminum guttering and copper gutter systems and enhance the architectural features of any home or commercial building. Leader heads may also be sometimes referred to as conductor heads, rainheads, hopper heads, scupper heads or rain collection box. Leader head are normally installed inline on the downspout or downpipe of gutters or eavestroughs – see second picture below for an example. Leader heads collect and disperse the water from rain gutters through one or more downspouts. Functionally, leader head assist in draining large volumes of water and aesthetically they truly dress up and upgrade a home’s exterior. Leader head installed with attractive guttering and downspouts and often in conjunction with decorative gutter hangers and decorative downspout brackets too have been described as jewelry for the home or “bling”. See the first picture below of a home with lovely half round copper gutters, decorative gutter hangers, round copper downspout pipe and decorative downspout brackets. The second picture below shows a similarly outfitted round copper gutter system but with a copper leader head also installed on the copper downspout, enhancing the beauty of the home’s architectural copper work even still more. The best quality leader heads use thicker metals and have TIG welded, polished invisible seams for the longest lasting beauty.
Copper Gutter System with Copper Leader Head Installed
Rutland also is involved frequently with restoration work of historic buildings and will re-create original leader head with new copper leader head preserving the original design. See picture below showing a very old original leader head design taken from a building with the new restored leader head replacement right along side of it. Rutland can also craft custom leader heads for you from your own design and specifications, fabricated with your metal of choice. You may view fifty-five leader head – conductor head designs on the web page at Rutland Leader Heads and additionally you may also view Rutland’s nine new leader head designs below.
Old Historic Leaderhead – New Restored Leader Head
To many people these words or phrases, Gutter, Gutters, Guttering, Rain Gutters, Seamless Gutters, Eavestrough, Roof Gutter and Gutter System all mean pretty much the same thing. The first thing many people think of when they hear one of these terms and specifically the word “gutters” are the narrow ducts or channels running along the eaves or bottom edges of a roof, which collect rain water and direct or divert it into a drain or downspout to be drained away from their home or some other building. This connotation or meaning is also what predominates the search results for most of these terms. Upon a closer look, we see the word gutter while often used to refer to the rain gutter running along a roof edge, it can also be a street gutter, which is slight depression which runs along the edge of a city street or curb, carrying rain and street water over to a drain or sewer. Gutter can also be the trough, channel or groove on the edges of bowling alley lanes that collect all those gutter balls. Table shuffleboards have similar gutters on their sides to collect pucks. In word publishing, printing and design, a gutter is the blank or empty space between facing pages or where pages come together and sometimes the space between columns and rows on a page or screen. Gutter can also be the ditch that runs along the side of a road. In stamp collecting it is the empty space between rows of stamps. Gutters in barns dug in the ground behind the animals collect and carry away excrement. The word gutter also frequently used with the phrase “in the gutter” might reference something that is morally questionable or distasteful. The word gutter derives or comes from the Anglo-Norman “gotere”, Old French “gotiere”, newer French “gouttiere” and the original Latin “gutta” or plural “guttae”.
What is interesting is that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN (Bing), AOL, Ask, Dogpile, Excite, etc. give a different order of search results when you enter each one of these search terms separately. It does not seem that search engines know that gutters, guttering, rain gutters, eaves troughs and gutter systems are the same thing as are rain troughs, rain collectors and rain channels. Websites and web-pages emphasizing or optimizing for one of these keywords are usually then not optimized for the others and so you get significantly different search result placement across the various search engines for each of these words or phrases. Many people already view search engines as frustrating and annoying to use due to their increasing emphasis on returning mostly paid advertisements in top positions in their search results rather than prioritize and list results genuinely based on merit, usefulness and content. Individuals and companies can pay to get listed highly in the search results whether or not they are worthy or deserving to be so highly considered and they offer commensurate relevance to the researcher. So paid listings tainting search results is not new but it has been getting worse each year to where some search engines and directories have become predominantly commercialized and no longer unbiased. Then to compound the problem with search result accuracy and validity are search engine optimizing games played by website marketing people who optimize or manipulate their website names and web-pages primarily to get listed highly in search engine results for a particular keyword or search term. For example emphasizing the terms “rain gutter”, “guttering” or “gutter systems” versus just “gutters” which is the most often used term to describe essentially the same thing, might give them an edge in search result placement over websites/web-pages that emphasize “gutters” or just “gutter”. Search engine users get mixed results from their searches depending on what term they enter even if they mean the same thing. For example, companies offering guttering are providing the same exact thing as companies offering gutters and still other companies offering gutter systems or rain gutters or even new gutters (hey aren’t most gutters sold new?). Yet enter each of these terms or phrases separately into search engines and you can get drastically different sets of results as well as the order of placement.
Just something to think about the next time you are searching for something and you want the most genuine, worthwhile, unbiased and untainted results. One strategy you can try is to search for whatever you are looking for using different synonyms, syntax or phrase variations. Trying out different search terms, ignoring the paid listings and repeating your search across multiple search engines, will deliver better results and give you a bigger more accurate picture. Meanwhile we hope for better, smarter search engines that can recognize essentially the same terms, synonyms or meanings and will give us back more consistent beneficial results. Of course we can always wish for an intelligent, free, unbiased search engine to miraculously appear, one that can not be bought, manipulated, fixed, greased, swayed or else biased in any way but will always return fair, just, even-handed, reliable and completely accurate results. That may be a tall order and seem unrealistic and yet it is not too much to ask for and yes, the world deserves and truly needs that.
Gutter gardens are a good approach to generating fresh produce or a colorful display of flowers around your home and have been receiving much buzz over the internet. A gutter garden is especially ideal when space is at a premium or if you wish to have a tidy and more ergonomic gardening setup. Nothing is better tasting and more satisfying than freshly picked produce for that awesome salad, fresh salsa and a plethora of other healthy vegetable dishes. Gutter gardens are essentially akin to planters that hang from your house at a convenient height and are typically fashioned using some form of home guttering to serve as your planter. This article discusses and compares several types of commercially available gutters that are good options for use in a gutter garden. Then we will explain exactly which components you will need and how to assemble your very own gutter garden. I do not know who first came up with the idea for a gutter garden, probably someone a long time ago and it was never publicized. Now with power of the Internet word gets around. I did find an article from Martha Stewart Living dating March 2006 that called them “Garden Pots” and they used copper gutters stacked in several tiers to form their gutter garden. They were growing hanging ivy in them to form a living screen off of a porch, but could just as easily be growing flowers or produce in them. Hanging your gutter garden as they did with chains is another option to mounting on a wall, just make sure your chains, anchors and supports are all robust and secure.
Re-using old guttering or buying cheap aluminum or plastic guttering are tempting options but may perhaps not be the best option. It is recommended you stay away from any kind of painted, rusted guttering or lead coated guttering for obvious health reasons if you are growing produce. Many plastics have unhealthy emissions and plastic gutters can also break down from the weight, UV sunlight and trowel work. It is best to use a gutter made from a pure metal that does not have any chemicals or paint applied, does not corrode or rust over time, is durable, long lasting, naturally weathers well, is aesthetically pleasing and is a genuinely attractive feature of your home. Steel and aluminum are relatively low priced but most varieties require some type of coating to resist rust and corrosion and coatings oxidize, scratch, are not durable, long lasting and mostly unhealthy too for a gutter garden. Galvalume is a zinc-aluminum coated steel that is a better candidate than either steel or aluminum alone, combining the corrosion and rust resistance of zinc and aluminum with the strength of steel but with an industrial looking gray metallic appearance and you would probably be tempted to paint this material. Three even better choices for your gutter garden are zinc, stainless steel and copper. Everyone is familiar with the appearance and attributes of stainless steel and it is a viable option. Stainless steel does not rust providing it’s surface is not damaged and it is generally considered a healthy, sanitary material. Stainless steel’s shiny appearance may be attractive or it may not blend in or complement your home’s exterior. Pure zinc is a viable, healthy option that is durable, weathers well and zinc develops an attractive protective, grey patina that is somewhat pewter like though zinc is priced higher than galvalume and stainless steel. Then we have pure copper which may be the best choice for a multitude of reasons: copper has proven itself for centuries to be the most durable and longest lasting metal; copper weathers extremely well, forming a protective attractive patina; requires little to no maintenance; copper is attractive, aesthetically pleasing, elegant and complements most home decor well; copper is EPA approved antimicrobial, germicidal, antibacterial and fungicidal; copper is a key nutrient for plant life; copper is considered eco-friendly and is a green building material. These are all attractive and most desirable traits for use in your gutter garden. Copper although being our highest rated choice also has the highest initial cost of all the metals and metal alloys mentioned above. Copper’s many and unique advantages, help justify it’s premium cost, especially considering the relatively short lengths required for most gutter gardens, which put copper gutters‘ premium price within reach and affordability.
Once you have decided on the material for your gutter, you will then likely choose between three common styles of gutter: K-style gutter, half-round gutter and box gutter. A box gutter will give you the most volume with which to garden with, and as it’s name suggests, it has a rectangular box appearance or if you like a plain box planter. K-style gutters are probably the most common residential gutters used in the U.S. and are somewhat boxy as well, though with a angled stepped front for a little more pizzazz. Half round gutters do look just like they sound, like half of a round cylinder or pipe and half-round gutters also have the most elegant appearance of all the various gutter types. There are also quarter round gutters which also are very attractive with their curved front. Quarter round and K-style gutters are generally available from 5 inches to 8 inches wide, half round gutters usually from 5 inches to 10 inches wide and box gutters are usually manufactured to size. Custom widths are also available through Rutland Gutter Supply. Compare the different appearances of K-style, box gutters, half-round, quarter round and embossed gutters, all pictured below.
In addition to choosing the material and style of gutter for your gutter garden, you will also choose the type of gutter hangers you will use to hang your gutter garden and the end caps used to cap off and finish the two ends of your gutter garden. There are several styles or types of gutter hangers available. So-called hidden gutter hangers are very commonly used and are called hidden because they are mostly not seen from the ground in a roof gutter system. Hidden hangers may not be the best choice for your gutter garden since they are positioned across the top of your gutter, they may obstruct or at least inconvenience your gardening work. A fascia mounting, squared-off gutter hanger with a front lip as pictured below may be better for box and K-style gutters while one of the decorative gutter hangers pictured below would prove ideal for the rounded gutters. A gutter spring clip holds the gutter in place when resting on a decorative gutter hanger and works well should you wish to remove the gutter easily for any kind of maintenance in another spot. You would use a gutter hanger every few feet to hold up the weight of your gutter garden, generally every three feet at least or every 2 feet if you also happen to live in the snow belt. You will also need to use so-called gutter hanger wedges, if your home’s walls have an angled slope, to keep the gutter garden aligned perpendicular. Gutter hanger wedges are available in several sizes to address a variety of slopes in your home’s siding or fascia. Installers typically use nails or screws to fasten gutter hangers and gutters to your home’s wall or fascia. I would recommend a screw’s added holding power recognizing a gutter garden’s weight. Your choice of gutter end caps include flat end caps for all the various styles of gutters or also available for the half round guttering are radius end caps, which give your gutter garden ends an attractive and graceful rounded appearance. The gutter end caps are attached by both riveting and soldering them to the gutter. If choosing copper guttering for your gutter garden, it is recommended you use all copper materials for the guttering, gutter end caps, copper rivets, gutter hangers, hanger wedges and bronze or stainless steel screws. This is to maintain a uniform matching appearance and avoid corrosive effect of dissimilar metals. Below are pictures of various types of gutter hangers, gutter end caps, gutter spring clips and gutter hanger wedges.
K-Style Gutter Flat End Cap & 1/2 Round Gutter Flat End Cap
After you have decided on the exact style and material for your gutter garden components, measure the exact lengths of guttering you need and keep in mind that you can go with a double or triple decker design if you desire. Your gutter garden should be in a location where it will receive the amount of sunshine recommended for what ever you are planning to grow. After the components have been ordered and they have been delivered, you are ready to attach the guttering for your gutter garden to your house. Measure and mark off the locations for your gutter hangers, to keep them evenly spaced and horizontally level. If using hidden hangers place them evenly spaced across the top of the guttering and attach to the wall with screws and use wedges if necessary. If using a squared-off box hanger or the decorative rounded hangers, attach the gutter hangers to the house siding with screws using appropriate sloped wedges if necessary, lay your gutter on the hangers and attach the hanger spring clips between the gutter hanger and guttering. Now you are done and can fill up your gutter garden with gardening soil or some composite mixture of garden soil, peat moss, manure, fertilizer and moisture retaining granules. Plant your seeds, seedlings or plants, water and enjoy your garden!
Additional Tips:
Avoid applying any chemicals or paint to the inside of your gutter garden for healthier plants and produce. If you absolutely must paint to achieve a desired color match, then do so only on the outside surface. Stainless steel will need to be cleaned and polished occasionally to keep it’s appearance while zinc and copper weather naturally and keep their beautiful, elegant appearance throughout their lifespan. Copper can be waxed regularly or even coated with a clearcoat or lacquer if you wish to keep the shiny new copper appearance but again do not apply any coating to the inside to avoid chemicals and to take full advantage of copper’s natural germicidal, antimicrobial and fungicidal properties. Also any wax or coating is temporary and needs to be re-applied. The natural copper patina however needs little to no maintenance When copper weathers there is a natural patina that forms on it’s surface which serves as a protective coating and the patina does not affect copper’s antibacterial properties. The copper patina changes color with age, progressing from a shiny salmon color, to reddish shades of brown, brown, greenish brown and finally a light green pastel color. The outside patination process can also be accelerated if desired by applying selective accelerants. Copper is revered and prized for it’s graceful, elegant appearance and gradually changing color throughout it’s very long lifespan. Approximate copper weathering color chart is illustrated below. If you desire drainage for your gutter garden, you may either choose to drill a few small holes sparsely across the entire length or have your guttering fabricated with rain chain style taps every few feet along the length.
Resource:
All types, styles and sizes of gutters and gutter materials discussed above can be obtained from Rutland Gutter Supply as well as all of the associated gutter parts and gutter accessories you will need for your gutter garden. Rutland carries the largest selection of gutter supplies in the USA with all the gutter accessories to match. Rutland also does custom metal fabrication and architectural copper work and ships all of it’s products globally all over the world. If you like the general idea of a gutter garden but would prefer to have a custom sized planter made for you, Rutland can custom fabricate virtually any size and style copper planter you desire.
Today’s blog will take a simplified look at custom copper dome construction. Copper domes are typically constructed with the surface consisting of some variety of either copper tile or copper panels. For this example we will be using copper tile for our custom copper dome roof. Copper roof tile can be purchased from a manufacturer and in this particular case we will be using hand-made copper tile, hand-cut from copper sheets. Diamond shaped hand made, hand cut, interlocking copper tile are shown below – there are approximately 136 copper tile per square (100 sq ft).
For the framework we will be using aluminum tubing, plywood sheathing and waterproof membrane. We begin by precisely cutting square aluminum tubing to size and bending the tubes using a roll forming machine to form the base and the many vertical support cross members. Partially completed aluminum frame shown below.
After all the aluminum framing tubes have been fully welded together, we then cut plywood sheathing panels to size, to fit precisely between the aluminum cross members and stretch from base to top. We affix them to the aluminum vertical support framework. See the partially completed plywood sheathing work shown below.
After all the plywood sheathing panels have been securely fastened in place with self-tapping screws, we then apply to the partially completed dome a self-sealing waterproof membrane, taking care to completely seal the dome. After the membrane is in place, we draw guidelines and begin carefully attaching the hand-cut copper tile to the dome and to each other. The copper tile have been designed to interlock securely with each other and we use copper ring shank nails to fasten them to the plywood.
Now this copper dome project is nearly completed as we attach the last of the copper tile to the very top of the copper dome roof. When all the copper tile have finally been attached, we are ready to crown the top of the copper dome with a copper finial. Copper finials come in a multitude of shapes, sizes and designs. They can be simple like the first photo below or more elaborate as in the 2nd picture below.
Copper Tile Dome with Copper Ball Finial
Standing Seam Copper Panels With Copper Finial Pineapple
Although this project may have been over simplified here, it was actually extremely labor intensive, benefiting from knowledgeable construction and metal fabrication expertise. Copper dome construction is very precise work and it can be very exacting just keeping each copper tile perfectly lined up straight and in perfect alignment with each other. All pictures which are provided herein and this copper dome project very beautifully accomplished by the skilled team at Rutland Copper Gutter Supply. Rutland’s skilled artisans and coppersmiths craft virtually every type of Architectural Copper Work for an eco-friendly copper green building.
The custom copper leader head (also known as conductor head, hopper head, rain collector box) in video below is a recreation of a cast iron leader head that adorned a church in England for centuries. Rutland Gutter Supply specializes in the highest quality of custom architectural copper work and copper gutter systems. There are over sixty-five different leader head designs now in Rutland’s growing collection. View some of these custom copper leader heads and other custom copper work, such as copper domes, copper cupolas, copper finials, copper chimney caps, copper spires, copper gutters, etc at Rutland Copper Gutter Supply & Architectural Copper Work. Leader heads are mounted inline on the downspouts being fed from a building’s gutters. Leader heads mix air in with the water flowing down through the downspouts, eliminating the back pressure or vacuum. See picture below of an installed copper leader head and copper guttering.
Custom leader heads are typically manufactured from pure copper, zinc, mill finish aluminum or lead coated copper on the finest commercial and residential gutter systems. Copper guttering and copper leader heads particularly, can last 80-100 years, require little to no maintenance, are aesthetically pleasing, they can be recycled nearly 100% and contribute to green building objectives. Leader heads add both a decorative (as seen in picture) and functional touch. Watch video below of a custom leader head that has been recreated from a centuries old one. Copper Gutter Leader Head Restoration Project – YouTube Video
Architectural Copper Work 