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Designed to sit on a gate pier, post or pillar, a decorative pier cap will provide an elegant finishing touch to any property.
Manufactured to the highest quality, our pier caps are available in a range of colours and profiles, in sizes to suit one to four brick piers. They are designed to complement our other architectural components, including our copings, ball and decorative finials. Bespoke designs and sizes are also available upon request.
Whatever your taste, our pier caps will provide a stylish and tasteful look to any entrance.
Helpful Tips
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What is a “weathered” pier cap?
The term “weathered” on a pier cap means that the top of the pier cap slopes in four directions, typically with a point on the top. The term “weathered” or “weathering” refers to the fact that a pointed top will allow rainfall to flow easily off it.
The alternative to a weathered pier cap is a “flat” pier cap. Typically, a “weathered” pier cap would be used when there is no finial or decoration on top of the cap and a “flat” pier cap would be used if a finial or decoration is required to be sited on the top.Copings can also be weathered, and either “twice weathered” where there are two equal slopes on the top of the coping that meet in the centre and run the full length of the coping, shedding water to both sides (typically used on garden walls and boundary walls), or “once weathered” where there is a single slope that runs the full length of the coping, shedding water to one side of the wall only (typically used on parapets and balconies).
The term “weathered” can also relate to the look and finish of the stone after being exposed to the elements and environment over time, typically darkening and attracting lichen, algae etc.
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What is the difference between a pier cap and a coping?
A pier cap is a capping used to decorate the top of entrance gate piers or piers positioned at intervals along a wall. They are typically square (although they can be rectangular or irregular), with moulding to all sides, and can either be weathered or flat.
A coping is a capping to a wall. They are supplied in suitable lengths, where the two long sides are the visible faces and the two ends are flat, to allow another coping end to be butted into it. This is continued until the entire length of the wall is covered.
Copings can also be supplied with corner units and terminal ends (where one end is moulded in addition to the two long sides to finish off the end of a stand-alone wall).
The underside of the coping has two “drip lines” running the length of the coping on either long side to help shed any water that migrates from the top to the underside of the coping. We recommend a minimum of 40mm overhang to each side of the underside of the coping if you require the drip lines to be effective.