Copper Gutters & Copper Gutter Supplies

Cover Story

It’s everywhere: Copper makes a comeback

By Jill Sell

                               Sell is a free-lance writer


You’re standing on your friends’ front porch, waiting for them to answer the door. When you casually glance to your right, you see a very attractive copper rain chain where normally a copper downspout might be located. The copper rain chain includes a vertical row of what looks like inverted bells. How pretty and clever, you think, not knowing that the copper rain chain actually has a very practical purpose.

“Rain chains are sometimes used at front entries because they are more sightly than a copper downspout coming down from the roof or copper gutter. Instead of trying to hide the copper downspout, the copper rain chain is more of an accent. They aren’t always practical, but in areas where there’s not a whole lot of water, rain chains work pretty well. They are actually pretty amazing,” said Sock Woodruff, owner of Custom Gutter in Lake Forest, Ill., and a regional distributor of exterior, residential copper gutter products manufactured by Rain Trade Corp.

Copper rain chains can take the form of fluted cups, tulips, lilies, traditional or double loop chains and are made from copper or brass. After the water follows the chain downward, it can fill a lovely copper, brass, stone or wooden bowl and overflow like a mini-waterfall, or simply run into a flowerbed or a yard. (Prices range from about $80 to $200.)

Rain chains are just one of the clever and attractive ways copper is dressing the exteriors of our homes. Copper gutter products is hardly a new architectural element, having been used for homes (especially in Europe) for centuries. (It is also man’s oldest metal, dating back to more than 10,000 years.) But because of its timeless beauty and practicality, copper is making a statement with today’s new homes and correctly done restorations.

We’ll be seeing more copper shingles, traditional copper gutters and copper downspouts and copper rain chains, as well as ornamental copper gutters and copper conductor heads, copper weathervanes, copper cupola covers, copper finials, copper gutter hangers and downspout brackets (think of them as bracelets for your downspout), copper gutter end caps and copper gutter medallions (little decorative “brooches” in the shape of leaves, flowers, shells, animals or family crests or initials).

Copper Stats (complied by the

Copper Development Association)

• An average single-family home uses 439 pounds of copper.

• About 10,000 copper range hoods and 20,000 weathervane are produced annually, using about seven pounds of copper each.

• There are about a billion doorknobs in the U.S., weighing in with about 500-600 million pounds of copper.

• Grandfather clocks average nine pounds of copper.

• A solid brass bed weighs 60 pounds.