WHO KNEW THERE WERE SO MANY KINDS OF ROOFS?

Posted by roofcoadmin June 3, 2016

If you’ve ever picked up a history book, you probably know that the style of roofs typically varies from area to area, and of course the most popular styles for each area are going to vary from decade to decade. At our Winnipeg roofing company we install a plethora of these roofing systems.

The designs, styles, and even the shapes of roofs vary, as they are created to best accommodate the structure that they cover. Regardless of the style of roof a building has, every roof has been designed to protect from the weather, house internal elements like piping, electrical wiring, ventilation, and insulation, and to have an overall compatible design with the rest of the structure. Here’s a quick look at some of the crazy types of roofs you may have seen.

  • Gable Roof

    • One of the more simplistic roof styles. The Gable Roof style looks like an inverted or upside down V. Gabled roofs are the kind that young children draw most often. These roofs have two sloping sides that come together at the ridge, which create end walls with triangular extension. Cape Cod style houses often have Gable roofs. The slant, or pitch, of the gables tends to vary, which most builders attempt to avoid.

    • Gabled roofs take several forms, including the unique L shape. If the floor plan of a home calls for a T shape, the roof is called cross-gabled. If one of the sloping sides ends in a shorter wall than the other, it’s called a saltbox.

  • Hip Roof

    • This is one of the more common styles of residential roof. This one is more difficult when compared to flat or even gable roofs, as they have a more complex truss and rafter structure. A roof of this style has four sloping sides and absolutely no vertical roof lines/walls. These can be either square or rectangular. Hip roofs slope from all four sides. In this way, the roof ends up looking interesting, yet steers clear of complications like little valleys where leaves collect. Hip roofs are another type that can be combined with Gabled roofs or linked up to create an L shape.

  • Gambrel Roof

    • The best description of this is a barn roof. The Gambrel roofing style is indeed most common on barns, but can be and is used for residential construction. This roof type provides greater amounts of attic space; so much so that the extra space is often turned into bedrooms or additional living space. These are actually a type of Gabled roof, commonly associated with Dutch building traditions, as well as barns. In order to get that great space under the roof, each sloping roof section is broken into two parts-one close to the ridge, relatively flat, and one that drops steeply, closer to the eaves.

  • Shed Roof

    • If you add more pitch to your flat roof, you’ll end up with a Shed Roof. A shed roof slants in only one direction. These, too, fall within the realm of Gabled roofs, but you’re going to have to think of them as half-gables to see that. Since all of the rafters are just about identical, these are super easy to build.

  • Curved Roof

    • Curved roofs require a lot more time and skill to create today than they once did. With only primitive tools and natural materials for building, builders used to bend branches into curved shapes, which was easier than forcing them into straight lines. This could be why curved roofs, even today, have a thatched appearance. These roofs may not be seen as often as they once were, but they sure are cool.

    • Octagon roofs aren’t terribly common, but they’re still out there! In fact, this is often a builder’s choice for a building that is round, or nearly round. The reason this is more popular than any other type of roof for buildings of this shape is due to simple math. Builders can divide 360 in half, then in half again, then in half a third time, ending up with 22 ½ degree angles, which is coincidentally how many that are needed to build an eight-sided roof.

There are a lot of different types of roofs, and a lot of what you see just depends on where you are. Take the time to look up every once in awhile-not while you’re driving, preferably-and check out some of the cool roofing options that are predominant in your area. Sometimes it can say a lot about the ancestry of your region, when the area was most highly developed, or just show you some darn cool roofs.