8 Popular Roof Designs

Which is your favorite?

There are a variety of roof designs available to homeowners, each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages. As a builder of luxury homes in St. Petersburg, FL, we highly suggest homeowners understand the difference between each style before selecting a roof design for their new custom home. Below we will outline 10 popular roof designs for St. Petersburg custom homes.

Popular Roof Designs

Gable

The gable roof is one of the more popular roof design styles for homeowners. This style has two surfaces that are pitched at the exact same angle to essentially form a triangle. There are many variations of a gable roof including the single gable, cross gabled, front gable, and dutch gabled roof.

Hip Roof

Hip roofs are another popular design style for roofs. This type of roof slopes down on all four sides, and while it is more difficult to construct, a hip roof is sturdier than a gable roof especially in high wind areas. Some of the variations of a hip roof include simple hip roof, pyramid hip roof, cross hipped roof, half hipped roof, and dutch gable hip roof.

Bonnet

The bonnet roof, also known as the kicked eaves roof, is a less popular design style for roofs and can usually be seen in French Vernacular architecture. This roof design incorporates two slopes on each side of the roof, with the top slope being steeper than the bottom slope, and the bottom slope is designed to hang over the house, creating a cover for an open porch.

Shed

A shed roof, otherwise known as a lean-to roof, is typically a single slope roof that spans the entire width and length of the structure. This roof design is one of the more cost effective and simpler forms of roofs to build, and are often used as a roof design for home additions.

Saltbox

The saltbox roof design is most similar to the gable roof design. The main difference is the surface of the roof on one side is longer than the other. The saltbox design was most popular during the late 1600’s and into the early 1800’s, and was coined the name due to the design’s resemblance to the wooden lidded boxes commonly used to hold salt at the time.

Gambrel

The gambrel roof, is most recognized for its barn style look and feel. These roofs have two distinct slopes on either side of the home with the lower slope being much steeper than the top slope. Often used as a roof design on barns because of its ample attic space, this style can also be found in residential homes and provide homeowners with additional space for bedrooms or other living spaces.

Mansard

The mansard roof was a highly popular design style that was used during the 1600’s in France. This roof design has two distinct slope surfaces on all four sides of the roof. The lower slope is very steep and can give off the appearance of a vertical wall with dormers. The upper slope has a very low pitch, which is not easily seen from the ground.

Flat

Most flat roofs are designed with a slight slope to assist with water runoff, and can sometimes be referred to as low-slope roofs. While this roof style is one of the more economical options available for roof designs because it requires less material, this roof style is not ideal for St. Petersburg luxury homes due to the heavy amount of annual rainfall.

For more information on our building services for custom homes in St. Petersburg, FL please contact us today at (813) 969-3033 or submit our contact request form.

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