Different Types of Roofing
Photo by Evgeny Ozerov

30 Different Types of Roof Designs and Styles

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Discover the different types of roofing for your house. When creating a structure, it’s easy to assume that the roof is a one-size-fits-all solution, but this is far from reality.

Numerous roof types exist, each serving a different purpose and better suited to specific weather conditions and architectural styles.

To continue learning about the different types of roofing for your house, continue reading this article.

Bonnet Roof

Bonnet roofs are essentially reversed mansard roofs. A bonnet roof, or kicked eaves, has four sides with a steep upper slope.

And a more gradual lower slope, providing shade for a porch around the house’s borders.

This style is more frequent in 1700s construction. However, it is typically considered archaic by modern builders.

Frame Roof

The A-frame is easily identifiable. It has a steep, pointed roof that reaches all the way to or near the ground.

The roof also covers most or all of the home’s walls. Because it serves as both a roof and walls, it is an effortless and economical roof style. This is one of the different types of roofing.

Box Gable Roof

Two sloping sides meet to form a ridge, with a triangular extension on either side that is boxed off from the walls.

This roof style is popular in cold-weather settings because it has a robust construction that can withstand rain and snow.

Butterfly Roof

A butterfly roof, also known as an inverted pitch roof, is made up of two tandem sections of roofing tilted upwards to form a V-shape, imitating a butterfly’s wings.

Also, the style offers a striking, contemporary look to buildings, with the extra benefit of allowing for more expansive walls and windows and an easily managed rainwater harvesting system through the roof’s center channel. This is one of the different types of roofing.

Clerestory Roof

An internal wall extending above one piece of the roof is known as a clerestory roof.

This wall section is commonly lined with multiple windows or one long window.

The roof parts on either side of the vertical wall are usually diagonal, allowing plenty of natural light to enter the windows.

Combination Roof

A combination roof combines different types of roofs. It often combines two or more designs for aesthetic and practical purposes.

This can include a variety of styles, such as a clerestory and hip roof. It is also an excellent choice for a distinctive and intriguing appearance.

Curved Roof

A curved roof gives any structure a very modern and fascinating look. The flexibility of metal components creates one huge curving framework in modern roofing.

However curved roofs help reduce wind resistance, but they’re mostly chosen for the outstanding aesthetic value they may provide to a structure.

Dome Roof

As the name implies, a dome roof is shaped like a dome. This roof style lends a beautiful appearance to a building and can be observed in many historical buildings, from Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Building to London’s famed St. Paul’s Cathedral. This is one of the different types of roofing.

Dormer Roof

Dormers have a vertically projecting window that adds to the number of windows in a typical pitched roof.

However, this roof form allows for easy space expansion and natural light in the converted loft room. It is most usually employed in loft conversions. 

Open Gable

An open gable roof is identical to a box gable roof except for the boxed offsides on either end.

The ends of this roof are left open to meet the walls directly; there are no additional benefits between the two; the decision is solely ornamental.

Cross Gable

A cross-gable roof comprises two or more gable roof ridges that meet at an angle, usually perpendicular to each other.

This sort of roof is also common in structures with more complicated layouts, such as homes with attached garages.

Cross Hipped Roof

A cross-hipped roof has perpendicular hip pieces that form an ‘L’ or ‘T’ shape in the roof hip.

This is an excellent alternative for buildings with a more complicated layout than a plain rectangle or square, and it’s a roof that can withstand rain, snow, and wind.

Dutch Gable Roof

A Dutch gable (hip) roof crosses between a gable and a hip roof.

However, a full or partial gable can be found at the end of the roof’s ridge, allowing for more internal roof space.

This form also improves the roof’s appearance, making it more unique and intriguing than the more usual basic hip roof.

Flat Roof

Flat roofs feature only a little incline to allow water to drain. Also, Flat roofs are typically used for industrial and commercial structures like offices and warehouses.

Still, they can also be a popular roof type for households because the flat space is ideal for a roof-top garden. Moreover, this is one of the different types of roofing.

Front Gable

The ridge on the front gable roofs is aligned with the building’s entrance. This roof style is prominent in Colonial-style homes, although it is becoming more popular in modern structures.

Gambrel Roof

A gambrel roof is one of the different types of roofing with a symmetrical two-sided roof.

It has a shallow upper portion and a steeper lower slope on either side, most typically found in barns.

This style also maximizes the space within a building’s loft, but it’s usually utilized on outhouses and barns due to its inability to withstand high winds or snowfall.

Gable and Valley Roof

A typical roof design is the gable and valley roof. Because the house has a cross footprint, it’s also called a cross-gable roof.

You can mix and match roof styles when creating a gable and valley roof design for a cross-footprint home.

Gable Roof With Shed Addiction

A typical roof design is the gable and valley roof. Because the house has a cross footprint, it’s also called a cross-gable roof.

However, you can mix and match roof styles when creating a gable and valley roof design for a cross-footprint home.

Hexagonal Gazebo

Any garden gazebo with this intricate roofing design will stand out. This roof is most commonly employed to add a delightfully unique gazebo to a home or commercial garden lawn.

Also, it comprises six triangular similarly pitched roof panels and six supporting beams. This is one of the different types of roofing.

Jerkinhead Roof

Jerkinhead roofs are gable roofs with the two peak ends snipped off, often known as clipped or snub gables.

The clipped ends of this style decrease potential wind damage to the home, making the roof more solid.

Half Hipped Roof

A half-hipped roof is nearly identical to a simple hip roof. However the two sides of the roof are shorter, resulting in eaves on both sides of the house.

This roof gives you additional options for expanding into the loft and adding windows, letting more natural light into the space.

Mansard Roof

A mansard roof is also a four-sided gambrel roof with one steeper higher slope and one shallower lower slope.

It is a common choice for structures that want to maximize the amount of living space available by allowing the loft to be used as additional living space.

M-Shaped Roof

An M-shaped roof is a double-pitched roof with two gable ends. Also, the roof is supported by two bearing walls and two sloping walls that form an ‘M’ shape in the center.

Central guttering runs between the two pitches in the winter to keep snow and rain from accumulating. Also, this is one of the different types of roofing.

Parapet Roof

A parapet roof is one of the different roof types. It is flat, with the building’s walls extending a few feet above the roof around the borders.

Installing a parapet on a flat roof makes it significantly safer. It provides a tiny barrier that adds security and reduces the risk of someone standing on the roof falling off.

Pyramid Hip Roof

A pyramid hip roof is similar to a regular hip roof, but the walls are square rather than rectangular, causing the roof slope to come to a point at the top, forming a pyramid shape.

This type of roof is also particularly wind resistant, making it excellent for places prone to severe winds or hurricanes.

Saltbox Roof

A gable amid an asymmetrical design in which one side of the roof is a sloping flat roof. And the other side is more of a lean-to.

This unusual, sturdy roofing type is generally seen on industrial buildings and garages and is more commonly seen in older colonial-style dwellings.

Shed Roof Or Skillion

A skillion roof is one of the different roof types. It has a single flat surface pitched at a sharp angle to allow water runoff.

Skidion roofs, sometimes known as shed roofs,’ are exceedingly inexpensive and straightforward to build because they comprise just one piece of roofing.

Simple Hip Roof

The classic basic hip roof features symmetrical moderate slopes towards the walls on all four sides, with no gables or any vertical sides to the roof.

Hip roofs are distinguished by the nearly equal pitch of their roof faces, making them symmetrical from the center point.

Skillion And Lear to Roof

A lean-to roof has a single angled pitch, similar to a skillion roof. Also, the roof is supported at one end by a higher wall than the other, allowing for a steeper slope to allow for runoff in heavy rain.

Pyramid Mansard

The steep sides, which provide a cap effect, distinguish the mansard roof.

This historically French roof was designed to create additional usable space in the upper stories.

Window dormers are common on mansard roofs since the area is useable and the dormers give natural light.

Instead of a level top, the pyramid form of the mansard roof has a pyramid design on top of the steep sides.

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