The Roofing Resource Blog

Basic Roof Shapes for Residential Buildings

Tue, May 27, 2014 @ 03:38 PM | Exterior Pro Roofing

When you are either deciding to build a home or deciding on getting a new roof, one question that the roofing contractor might ask you is the shape of your roof. This helps also in deciding what type of roofing material you would want to have on your roof. Some designs or shapes, do better with certain materials and some materials do not do so well with certain shapes. Knowing this information is helpful to your contractor and informative to you to learn something about your home. Each shape gives a different characteristics and many are more popular with variances to them from historic homes and now in present unique designs. For now let’s cover the basic shapes.

The first is the Gable or pitch shape. This is one of the most common shapes you will see which is the triangular shape you come across most often. These roofs are especially used when the building plans call for an attic area.

gabled roof

The next we have is the Hipped roof. These are also popular in homes and they often have shady eaves, these are also meant to offer more resistance to strong winds. You will see that there are also hipped and valley roofs that means they consist of the hipped design with multiple ones which is what makes the valleys.hipped roof

The next we have is the gambrel shape. This is most commonly used for barns and other agricultural buildings that has been used for barns for a long time now. There are some residential homes that use this shape as well.gambrel roof

The next that we see a lot of is the flat roofs. Especially in commercial buildings. These roofs you do not shingle or use metal, instead you use other roofing materials like PVC, and EPDM.flat roof

Another shape popular is the shed or skillion shape. It is known for shed most commonly because used to be most sheds used the shape and they are used in some homes and can be very steep.shed roof

Another that you will see a lot of is the pyramid shape where the roof comes to a point in the middle. These we see especially in smaller homes. These also have attic space.pyramid roof

The saltbox is also a shape that you may see where one side of the roof is longer than the other. These also have attic space.saltbox

Lastly we have the next common shaped that is the mansard. With is much close to the hipped but can have the flat top in the middle, or the edges of the roof comes down at a lesser angle that the hipped. These are also used for homes with attics.mansard shape

These shapes are the most common used especially in residential home designs. There are more designs that have come around or have been around and becoming popular again that give a different charter to homes likes domed, curved or arched roofs. Many monumental buildings have some of these other designs and as you can see they give a unique look to buildings all over.