Decorative & Antique Lightning Rods and Weathervanes in Texas & Oklahoma

Decorative points: glass balls, copper and brass

Old-style lightning rods often carry a colored glass ball partway up the rod, with ornamental copper or brass points and finials. Today's decorative air terminals come in a range of styles that keep that vintage barn and farmhouse look.

A weathervane can also sit atop an air terminal on a cupola or barn ridge, so the vane is part of the lightning protection system instead of an unprotected metal object on the highest point of the roof.

It still has to be a real system

A lightning rod by itself is just an ornament. To protect a building it needs properly sized down conductors, secure connections, bonding of nearby metal, and a grounding system, installed to NFPA 780, the recognized installation standard.

We design every decorative installation as a complete system first, then choose points and vanes that fit the building's style.

Restoring antique systems on old farmhouses and barns

Many older Texas and Oklahoma farmhouses and barns still have their original rods, but decades of weather can leave broken cable, loose connections, missing ground rods, or rods that were disconnected during a reroof.

We inspect the whole system, re-ground it, replace worn or undersized cable, and reset the points, keeping the antique look wherever the original pieces are still sound.

Your antiques or new decorative pieces

Have an antique rod, glass ball, or weathervane you'd like to use? Bring it to us and we'll tell you honestly whether it can be incorporated into a working system.

Prefer new? We can source new decorative air terminals and weathervanes. Styles and availability vary, so we'll go over current options and pricing with you for your project.

A family trade, three generations in

Joe Linzy is the third generation of the Linzy family to install lightning rods, and he does every install personally. That includes plenty of old barns and farmhouses with rods put up long ago.