A friend had a copper ridge installed about 5 years ago and it work really well at keeping the moss at bay until last year. It is obviously pretty tarnished and i was wondering could i clean it with anything to 're-activate it'?
re-activating copper ridge?
- Thread starter r896neo
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Correct there, I work near an old building (well have worked on it too) which has a slate roof with two copper covered lanterns on it and the roof has moss except where the rain has run down off the lantern.
Copper has three different stages,
bright shiny metal when it is first put up which may have some sort of electrolicical effect(?)
then it goes brown and is realatively inert, think the colour of water pipes
and finally it develops the green verdgris that is defernatively poisonous,
the lanterns I know are green so the copper may "re-activate" itsself with a little more weathering.
I don't know for sure just dragging up my o level chemistry from the depths of my memory
C
compendiumhead
Should the copper be under trees, the sap that trees produce can coat the copper and stop the slow release of Copper Sulphate. Good glass paper is better than wire wool as you need to scratch the surface.
The first year of CR is alway the best, the surface does lose a small amount of 'power' but a good scrape will help. Easier method though can be to use caustic soda diluted 50-50 with water, and spray it on. This will also set the copper off again.
The first year of CR is alway the best, the surface does lose a small amount of 'power' but a good scrape will help. Easier method though can be to use caustic soda diluted 50-50 with water, and spray it on. This will also set the copper off again.
Just to add a little more about this copper thing.
A friend of mine recently tried to "clean" a brass (i.e. copper alloy) jam pan by soaking it in vinegar for almost a week. He then rinsed it out with water and it did look clean.
However, when the pan was used to make an egg custard , which it had been used for before, we ended up with green custard- copper salts had contaiminated the mix and sadly the custard was chucked and we had to go without
A friend of mine recently tried to "clean" a brass (i.e. copper alloy) jam pan by soaking it in vinegar for almost a week. He then rinsed it out with water and it did look clean.
However, when the pan was used to make an egg custard , which it had been used for before, we ended up with green custard- copper salts had contaiminated the mix and sadly the custard was chucked and we had to go without
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