Cupolas - Rooftop Rules and Guidelines

Cupolas and Weathervanes - Rules for Placement on roof lines:

Cupolas and Weathervanes have a lot of fun rules that are guild lines when putting up a great weathervane and cupola on the garage. For general rules on weathervanes and cupola remember that if you are happy with your copper weathervane and cupola then so are we.

Rule 1: Normal placement of a cupola on a roof line is 1” of cupola for 1 ½” feet of unbroken roof line. Please remember that this is only a rule – not a law and every customer is different. Using this guideline rule, a 24’ roof line will give you a size of 30” for your new cupola. This look will give you a majestic look for your new cupola.

Rule 1: Weathervane Addition to Cupola - please remember that our weathervanes are measured by length and height of the weathervane figure itself – so when figuring this cupola rule – remember that a 18” cupola with a 38” corgi weathervane – the corgi weathervane would be much larger then the 18” cupola – this changes the cupola rule – you then would want a bigger cupola to go with the bigger corgi weathervane.

Rule 2: Second Rule is another guideline which is 1” of cupola per 1’ of roof line which means that on a 26-foot shed the customer will choose a 26” cupola. Please remember that this rule is the smallest you would want to choose from, or the cupola can look a bit tiny on the ridge. Because of this you may not be happy with this guideline since the cupola will blend with the roof line and not be as majestic as rule 1

Rule 2: Weathervane Addition to the 26” Cupola, now you like one of our Fancy Arrow Weathervanes that is 28” long and the cupola is 26” Long – well this Fancy Arrow Weathervane will look great on the 26” cupola because the arrow weathervanes are sleek and even if they are larger than the cupola, they tend to still look amazing and do not overpower the cupola even when they are longer the then cupola. Unlike the Powerful Super Corgi Weathervane.

Rule 3: The higher up you go, the larger size you will need to add to your cupola. Please think of a hot air balloon. When down on the ground they are huge but as soon as you let them go, they get small quickly. This will apply to cupolas too. For each story that you go up in the air you will want to add one size larger to your cupola. Example. If you have a two-story garage that you wish put your cupola on and the rule reads that you will want the 30” cupola – this is when you need to jump to the next larger size of the 36” cupola or the cupola will look too small. If the garage is a three story, then you will add two sizes to the cupola and you will pick the 42” size cupola.

Rule 3” Weathervane Addition for Up High in the air cupola – Yes you are going to want a bigger weathervane because the higher they go the weathervane also gets smaller and you really want to be able to see that you have a great cat weathervane on the roof of your new barn and new cupola.

Rule 4: This is a fun rule for multiple cupola placement on a large roof line. On this rule you will be attempting to break up a 120-foot roofline and the width will be 40” wide. Since cupolas are breaking up the roof line you can now go back to rule 2 for a simple plan. On a 120-foot roof line the smallest you would want to go would be two big 60” cupolas or you can do three or even four cupolas across the entire roofline. For example, you would do 4 30” cupolas or even change it up with a large 48” cupola in the middle and put a nice 36” cupola on either side of the 48” cupola to give a more majestic look. In this rule you really cannot go wrong – you can do the mix and match for the cupolas. Add so amazing weathervanes and you will be very pleased.

Rule 5: Just want a smallish low-cost cupola to hold my big weathervane. This rule is popular with people on a low budget and they want the weathervane more than the cupola but do not wish to use roof mounting hardware. We always tell the customer that their cupola will look small, but they do not seem to care and end up very pleased with the outcome. Again, these rules for the cupola placement are only guidelines and in the end the customer is always right since they are the ones that get to see the final cupola placement every day.

Rule 5 Small low-cost cupola as a weathervane mount for your amazing Flying Pig Weathervane – this happens a lot but if you are making your own cupola you might want to call in and chat with us about mounting ideas from us for our great copper weathervanes. If you are purchasing a cupola at a low-cost store, please remember our weathervanes do not work on cupolas such as _____ or _______ also ______ because these cupolas are made for the Very Light Weathervanes on the Market or now weathervane at all. Please remember that our copper weathervanes are heavy duty and can weight up to 40 lbs (for example our larger eagle weathervanes.) In a heavy wind our competitor cupolas have exploded when attempting to hold one of our copper weathervanes. Please do the cupola knock test. Knocking on the top of the cupola – if the top of the cupola is really flimsy, feels like the cupola is going to fall apart just from the knock and the cupola and has a hole with ½” threads in the center – back away slowly. This not going to work.

 

Please note we are working on new cupola on roof line drawings to add to this section.