Globe finials: an old roof detail you can revive today

Have you ever noticed these little galvanized steel balls on the peaks of gable roofs in older neighborhoods?

Globe finial (ball finial) at the Blizzard Gulch "Ranger Station".

This is a globe finial, sometimes called a ball finial. My childhood home in Oregon, which was built right after WWII, had three of these ornamenting the ends of the ridge caps that sealed the tops of the shingles. So did many other houses in the neighborhood. Nowadays few people know what they are. Roofers rip them off and toss them into the dumpster. Ridge caps are no longer used with asphalt shingles; the shingles wrap right over the ridge. Gable finials therefore no longer have a purpose, except sometimes on barn roofs, but still it seems to me that a roof looks neglected without them. That particularly applies to a period house.

Classic Forest Service ranger stations commonly have green asphalt shingles. The Blizzard Gulch “Ranger Station” departs from that tradition in having a corrugated coated metal roof, mainly to provide a safe surface for rainwater collection and to stand up better in case of forest fire. Unlike traditional ridge roll, such as was on my childhood home, its ridge cap is designed to fit closely to the roofing panels, leaving no space to slip ball finials in. Still, I was determined to have the finials even if they must perch a bit oddly. I bought old globe finials from eBay and antique stores because the roofing company not only didn’t know where to get globe finials, they didn’t even know what I was talking about!

Old globe finials from eBay. This pair happens to be the large size.

Today I dug deeply into Google and discovered that globe finials are still being made by Klauer Manufacturing Company in Dubuque, Iowa. You can go to their website, look under “request a catalog”, pick the pdf format catalog, and look on page 30. There the finials are!

New globe finial from Klauer Manufacturing Company.

Not quite believing my eyes, I emailed to the Klauer company and received from Mr. Dan Burrows not only reassurance that the company does in fact still make globe finials but also a bit of history about the little critters. Here’s what he told me:

In the early 1900’s through the 1940’s, putting the roof on a home was somewhat different than today.  More often than not, rolled asphalt roofing was used, if the homeowner did not use metal for the roof.  To seal the roof peak, a demand was created for products that both closed the roof and were somewhat ornate in their nature to dress up the application.  Products ranged from various ornate hip shingle designs to plain ridge roll.  Plain ridge roll was by far the most popular of the products used to seal the peak and dress up the project.  There were actually originally (3) three sizes of ridge roll used for this purpose.  They were 1-1/4″, 1-1/2″ and 2″ Plain Ridge Roll.   The size references the diameter of the roll at ridge of the product.  Some applicators simply snipped the roll and bent the product down at each end to seal it, however residential homeowners did not really care for that look.  Subsequently, Klauer Manufacturing Company developed what is referred to as the Globe Finial.  It consisted of small piece of the actual ridge roll with a round ornate ball attached to it.  This provided a very ornate look as well as sealing the ridge roll.  There were originally (3) three sizes of balls, one for each size of ridge roll.  This particular product was totally manufactured by hand, as it still is today.   There are (13) thirteen individual operations in the manufacturing of the Globe Finial.  Due to the stress of fabricating the Globe Finial, it can only be manufactured from Galvanized Steel.  We had totally discontinued the fabrication of the Globe Finial in the early 1970’s, however demand required that we at least continue to fabricate the one for 2″ Plain Ridge Roll.  Today the 2″ Globe Finial that fits 2″ Plain Ridge Roll is the only size we manufacture.   The other sizes have been discontinued over the years as their use dwindled.  We have chosen to keep the 2″ Globe Finial in our product line, and at present have no plans to discontinue it.  I believe there are some plastic finials that someone is having made, however we are the only manufacturer of the metal (steel)

finial.

Ridge roll for use with globe finials.

There’s a small hitch, though. These days the company only makes the biggest ridge roll, the 2-inch size, which may be too large for some applications and also too large for many of the old residential globe finials.

Klauer Manufacturing Company sells globe finials only to wholesale distributors. In Colorado, these distributors are Guardian Building Products in Pueblo and Valley Steel and Wire in Fort Collins. Guardian Building Products has warehouses all over the country. No doubt there are many other wholesalers who carry Klauer metal products. You can ask your friendly local lumber yard, such as my beloved Rush’s Pueblo Lumber, to order globe finials for you from one of these wholesalers. The Guardian item number is 35213. I’m going to buy some for our sheds!

To contact Klauer Manufacturing Company, you can email to sales@klauer.com.

Edit: another wholesale source is HW Brand. Inquire at farm and ranch supply stores such as Big R.

Edit: I am on the hunt for pictures of houses that still have their globe finials.

Globe finial (ball finial).

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