Roof Types

Bonnet Roof

Bonnet roofs are essentially a mansard roof in reverse. Also known as kicked eaves, a bonnet roof has four sides with a steep upper slope, and a more gentle lower slope, providing cover around the edges of the house for a porch. This style is more commonly seen in builds from the 1700s, but is often seen as outdated for modern builders.

Box Gable Roof

A Box Gable roof, similar to a Gable Roof, has two sloping sides meeting in the middle to form a ridge. The difference lies in the triangular extension on each end, essentially creating a box effect.

Box Gable roofs offer the same advantages as standard Gable Roofs creating an increase in living space, ease of build and a greater benefit against weather conditions, especially wet and snowy weather. The boxed addition to the roof increases the protection of the brickwork from the weather and enhances the aesthetics of the roof and subsequently the house. The biggest downside to Gable roofs in general is their vulnerability to being uplifted due to high winds and hurricanes. The Box Gable roof offers slightly more protection against this.

Butterfly Roof

A Butterfly, more commonly referred to as an inverted pitch roof, is named thus due to it’s emulations of butterfly wings whereby the two opposing sides of the roof are angled upwards, forming a V-shape. This style of roof is particularly stylish and typically seen on modern buildings. This type of roof allows for larger walls and windows to the property and affords an easy way of managing rain water via a single middle channel.

Clerestory Roof

The clerestory roof is built with an interior wall that extends above a sectional part of the roof. Typically this wall is fitted with various windows or a single, but wide window. The end sections of the extended vertical wall typically slope creating a unique style but additionally allows for increased amounts of natural light via the windows.

Combination Roof

As the name suggests, a combination roof is a combination of different types of roofs. A combination roof borrows style and structure from at least two different types of roofs for both aesthetics and functional purposes. Combination roofs typically feature various styles; clerestory and hip roofs, for example.

Cross Gable Roof

Cross Gable Roofs are designed through the intersection of two or more gable roof ridges at an angle most typically perpendicular to one another.

Cross Hipped Roof

The cross hipped is one of the more common types of roof designs seen in contemporary times. They are denoted from perpendicular hip sections forming a ‘L’ or ‘T’ type shape. Cross Hipped Roofs are typically used to afford a more complex home layout than that of a type square property, without losing the main functions that a roof provides.

Curved Roof

A curved roof is a modern type of roof design which emphasises aesthetics qualities more so that the function of durability. Essentially, a curved roof has a curved shed-style shape. Whistl early examples of this type of roof are seen in round-roof barns made from timber, contemporary examples take advantage of metal adding an element of flexibility and improved resistance to wind and other weather conditions.

Dome Roof

As the name suggests, a dome roof is shaped like a dome. Both complex and durable this type of roof design affords an aesthetic unlike others. The most notable examples of dome roofs can be seen on famous buildings worldwide, such as the Capitol Building in Washington DC and St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Dormer Roof

Dormer Roofs vary in style but the common denominator is that they all have windowed sections projecting vertically from the pitched roof sections. This type of roof design is popular for properties with loft conversions as it provides an easy way to expand the living space whilst simultaneously offering a source of natural light into the attic space.

Dutch Gable Roof

The Dutch Gable Roof is a hybrid crossover of both the Gable Roof and Hip Roof designs. Either a full or part gable exists at the end of the roof ridge. This type of roof design provides the functional benefit of more internal roof space whilst enhancing the aesthetics of a typical Hip roof.

Flat Roof

Flat Roofs contradictory to its name aren't completely flat. There is a slight pitch to allow water to run-off and drain. Whilst flat roofs are typical of industrial and commercial buildings such as offices and warehouses this type of roof design can also be found in domestic properties. Flat roofs can be found on garages, single story extensions and can even create roof-top gardens.

Front Gable

Front Gable Roofs are roofs that feature a front gable inline with the entrance to a building. Whilst commonly appearing upon Colonial-style homes, Front Gable roofs have grown in popularity in modern buildings.

Gable Roof with Shed Addition

Another Gable Roof design is one with a shed addition. This style has become a popular variation of the standard gable roof; it affords additional headroom and internal living space as an extension without the consequence of altering the existing roof completely.

Gambrel Roof

A gambrel roof, whilst most commonly used for barns also features on other outhouses due to unsuitability in harsh weather conditions such as heavy winds or snow. The structure of the gambrel roof design is a symmetrical two-sided roof with a shallow upper-section accompanied by steeper lower slopes on each side.

Half Hipped Roof

A half hip roof is practically identical to a standard hip roof redesign, save that both sides of the roof are shorter thus creating eaves at either side of the building. Half hipped roofs afford options for extending the properties living space by converting the loft and installing windows, affording a greater allowance of natural light.

Hexagonal Gazebo Roof

The hexagonal gazebo roof design though complex affords a unique aesthetic visual. Hexagonal gazebo roofs consist of six triangular roof panels of identical pitch, supported by an equal number of support rafters.

Hip and Valley Roof

Hip and valley roofs are designed utilising four sloping surfaces, two of which are adjoined via a common ridge whilst the others on either end of the central ridge. Hip and Valley roofs are similar to the trapezoid structure of gable roofs save the addition of two triangular shaped hip ends.

Jerkinhead Roof

A Jerkinhead roof, also known as a snub gable roof or dutch hip roof, is similar to a gable roof visually with the exception that its peaks are clipped. The clipped ends afford a greater amount of headroom internally whilst simultaneously reducing potential wind damage.

Mansard Roof

A Mansard roof, also known as a french roof or curb roof, is a four-sided gambrel roof. A mansard roof can be identified by each side of the roof having two slopes. The upper slope has a shallower pitch than the lower, but the latter commonly has dormer windows. Mansard roofs afford the maximising of living space in buildings providing a loft conversion has or can occur, due to its steep roofs and windows.

M Shaped Roof

A M shaped roof, as known as a double gable roof, is a double-pitched roof. It rests upon two load bearing walls with two sloping walls meeting in the middle forming a ‘M’ shape, hence the name. A Central gutter runs betweens the two pitches preventing rain or snow accumulating.

Open Gable Roof

An open gable roof is practically identical to a box gable roof save ‘triangular’ extensions or boxed ends are open as opposed to being closed and thus meet the walls directly. There are no functional benefits between the two, only an aesthetic difference.

Parapet Roof

A Parapet roof is the same as a flat roof. This type of roof however, has walls that extend upwards beyond the roof line, by a few feet. The parapet roof affords a greater level of safety via this small wall. In addition to this there can be the aestic benefit of hidden guttering or drainage.

Pyramid Hip Roof

A pyramid hip roof is similar to that of a hip roof. This type of roof varies to that of a hip roof however, as the walls are square instead of rectangular. This makes the roof slopes meet at a singular point making a pyramid shaped roof. This type of roof is resistant to adverse weather conditions such as high and strong winds.

Saltbox Roof

The saltbox roof is asymmetrical in design whereby one side of the roof is a sloping flat roof, with the other lending more to a lean-to style roof, creating a gable in the middle of the two. Historically seen in order colonial-style properties, its contemporary use lends itself to industrial and commercial buildings but can be seen in the domestic setting by way of garages.

Shed Roof or Skillon

A skillion roof is a single flat roof, pitched at a steep angle allowing the runoff of water. It is typically seen more on sheds due to its ease and minimal expense in construction.

Simple Hip Roof

The Simple Hip Roof is the most common and popular type of roof. It comprises of four sides with symmetrical slopes towards the walls, without any gables or vertical elements to the roof. Simple Hip Roofs are distinguished by their almost identical pitches on each side of the roof, making them symmetrical from the central point.

Skillion & Lean To Roof

A lean-to roof, similar to a skillion roof, is composed of a single angled pitch. It’s supported at one end by a wall higher than the opposing.