One of the most distinctive characteristics of a copper roof is its famous green patina. This process is slow and uneven, but it's also inevitable in an exposed solid copper roof. If you'd love a beautiful green copper roof, here are two ways to make it happen.
The Patina Process
Because copper is a particularly reactive metal, it begins to show signs of oxidation quite quickly. Unlike many other metals, the oxidation of copper is very tightly bonded to the base metal - so much so that it actually forms a layer of protection from further corrosion. This protective layer is what we see when copper goes gray, brown, and eventually green or turquoise. The rate at which this process occurs varies greatly depending on the environment to which the copper is exposed. In a warm, humid, coastal location, a copper roof might progress all the way to a green verdigris in less than ten years. In a cold, dry, inland, desert location, copper might take many decades before it develops that same degree of aged-copper green - if ever!
Your Options
Assuming you want a genuine copper roof that looks like it’s been installed on your building for a very long time and naturally developed its lovely green appearance, you have two choices. Install a copper roof now and wait the years or decades for it to naturally react with the moisture in the air until it becomes old enough to turn green, or install a copper roof now that has been pre-aged with a specially formulated acid treatment that turns it green in a day or two. It’s possible to accomplish this with the right type of formula and an experienced applicator, and it can yield amazing results that can make it impossible to tell if the copper roof is three months or fifty years old.
If you have a project that calls for solid copper - pre-aged or otherwise - Metal Roof Network would love to be involved. Contact us today.
