Cupola letting rain in the barn

[RobA]

Have you contacted the "Amish Cupol Maker"? Surely since he built it he would have the best advice.

Never thought of that. Should have, but I didn't. Good idea.

I'd remove the louver vents and install window screen behind them...either in a small panel frame.. or just stapled to the back of the louver frame using a piece of 1/2" x 1/4" trim as a lip to hold the screening in.
soundguy

Cupola was built with a window screen behind the louvers. They don't seem to do much to stop rain.

I am assuming your driving rains come out of one direction normally. Since you have vents on all four sides, install glass over the wind driven side. Three sides will still allow for ventilation. Redo louvers to be longer and different angle also.

Redoing the louvers would be really difficult. Good idea about blocking 1 side. I have some Plexiglas that would work. As you said 3 sides would still be open.

RobA,
What are the dimensions of your barn?
Is the siding cypress?
Would you mind shooting a couple pics of the inside?

Thanks for the kind words. Before we had the barn built I looked at local builder's ads and pictures on the internet. We showed the pictures of barns we liked to an Amish barn builder and he made the plans.

Barn is 24'x48' with an 8' overhang. Wood is eastern white pine. I had it stained with a cedar colored stain. 1st floor walls are 10'. Sliding doors (on both ends so I can drive the tractor straight through and for cross ventilation) are 10'. Roof trusses were used and the 2nd floor has knee walls. Plenty of headroom on the 2nd floor. In order to make it simpler the dormers were built between the trusses and a small plywood walkway between the same trusses gives me access to the dormer windows.

The one thing that didn't turn out as expected was the stairs to the 2nd floor. Since the barn is only 24' wide they couldn't start in the corner and run straight up without getting in the way of the doorway. Builder made the steps turn after going 1/3 of the way. I didn't want to cut the floor joists (which were part of the rafter system). I can't carry anything too big up the steps but I do have doors on the 2nd floor. You can see the steps in the upper right corner of the door opening in this picture...

Everyone here said "build it bigger than you think you'll need". They were right. I'm really happy with it but I should have made it a little bigger. It's filling up quickly. But it has been really useful. It's on a piece of acreage we bought 2 years ago but are not moving to for another 2 years. After I move there I'll put in some windows on the 1st floor. Since we're not there I didn't want to anyone looking in even though it is almost 1,000' from the street.

I'll try to take some pictures this weekend. Let me know if there are any specific features you want to see.

 

[Jimmyp5]

OK my two cents., you really may have a drip edge problem... the water is not dripping directly down and wicking under the edges and it would look like it was blown in. So how do you fix this? I would try a simple fix first, get some of the plastic v-grooved self sticking door insulation tape from the local home improvement store. Install it into the louvers v side up so that when the water wicks up it hits the apex of the v side and then returns and drops off. A 5 buck solution...if it is a wicking problem...

Love the barn!!

 

[Soundguy]

If it already has screen inside it.. the wicking problem does sound plausable.. as the screen should do a much better job at deflection..

soundguy

 

[Podunkadunk]

RobA,
Thanks for the writeup on the specs. Your style and design would go perfectly with my house and I want them to match, or at least have a likeness, since they'll be within 50-60 yards of one another. I'm still a few months out before the construction will begin. It will be a normal pole barn except for making a bonus room up stairs. Then my father and I will be walling it in, first the bonus room and eventually the sides as $ permits. Thanks for taking the time to post, it really is a beautiful barn.

Podunk

 

[citytransplant]

Whenever a windblown rain comes through I get water coming in through the cupola vents.

Beautiful barn!

I can't believe that just yesterday my gal asked me to go up on our (her) barn roof this weekend to address this same issue ... well ... sort of. I say sort of because she is quite sure our leak is being caused by rainwater running down the weathervane rod, not through the louvers (see linked drawing of cupola - area of top arrow). I would think that with properly angled louvers and screen (our cupola is built by Amish also - nice quality), you would need a sideways driving rain coming down for a considerable period of time to cause any significant leaking.

I will go up tomorrow, weather permitting, see what we have going on, and report back. The only fix (if indeed the rod is the culprit) that I have come up with would be a simple rubber washer with outer diameter wider than the hole in the cupola that the rod sits in. The inner diameter of the washer would be same diameter as rod and would be slipped on the rod and sit just above the hole, causing water to drip down rod, around washer, and onto "roof" of cupola rather than inside the hole and, in our case, onto a light fixture.

Please let us know what your cupola maker tells you. If you haven't already spoken to him, please share my hypothesis with him. I would be interested in his reaction.

http://www.ferroweathervanes.com/ca..._and_Brackets/images/no_additional_mounts.gif

 

[citytransplant]

you would need a sideways driving rain coming down for a considerable period of time to cause any significant leaking

I pointed out this thread to my gal and she noted that water does leak through the louvers of our cupola during driving rainstorms. I didn't realize that.

 

[citytransplant]

Well my fix was easier then I thought it would be. I assumed that the rod (that turns in the wind) passed through the hole in the cupola. Upon closer inspection, I realized the rod (which is welded to the horse in drawing above) actually slips into a long pipe/tube just a few inches below the horse. The pipe/tube extends down through the hole in the cupola and rests on a board. Since the hole in the cupola was slightly larger than the pipe/tube, water dripped down into barn, onto the board, and as luck would have it, onto a light fixture. Since the pipe/tube is fixed (unlike the rod that is inserted into the pipe) a bead of silicone was all that was necessary to prevent any more water from dripping down into the barn.

Now I need to see for myself how bad the rain leaks in through louvers when we get a sideways rainstorm.

Good luck RobA. I will be lurking to see how you resolve your issue.

 

[Soundguy]

Glad it was an easy fix!

soundguy

 

[Kendrick]

Just a thought, depending on how utilitarian you are could you not just put a plate 2" or so away from the louvers on the outisde to block driving rain yet still let convection work throught the louvers?

you might be able to get away with clear plexi, a piece of water resistant metal may also work.

 

[Soundguy]

An 'overhang from the cupola roof may also serve the same purpose to deflect water.. but allow air flow.

in any event I think he found the leak from the top anyway..

etc.

soundguy