How Do I Know If I Have A Hip Roof

This can reduce the amount of exterior siding or other finish and therefore can be a cost effective option.

How do i know if i have a hip roof. A hip roof is a rectangular roof that slopes on all four sides. Find the dimensions of each of the roof s faces. Thus a hipped roof house has no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. There are no gable ends on a building with a hip roof.

Because i have a hip roof that slopes towards each exterior wall each of those walls is carrying some roof weight. The exterior walls on houses that support the roof are primary bearing walls. The roof leak repair is usually pretty easy. A hip roof is a roof in which the roof slopes upward from all four exterior walls to meet at a central ridge.

If you have water stains that extend across ceilings or run down walls the cause is probably a leaky roof. There are many houses where just the front and back walls are bearing walls. Hip roofs do not have gable ends but instead they feature sides that all slope downward and must be shingled. The hip roof is another simply formed and easily built roof that efficiently sheds water.

My home is different. A hip roof may be virtually square sloping from one main roof point downward on four equal sides or it may have an extended roof ridge and additional hips designed by the architect. For trapezoidal roofs measure the bottom edge the top edge also known as the ridge and the distance between the 2 edges. In homes with irregular floorplans a hipped roof can be created with a series of shapes which create an array of peaks and valleys.

But i wouldn t select it simply for that reason. If the roof has a triangular shape stretch your tape measure along the bottom edge then measure from the peak point down to the center of the bottom edge. A regular hip has equal slopes on all sides while an irregular hip has different slopes on the main roof and hip end roof. Easy rafters does not calculate a complete four sided hip roof but rather calculates the common hip and jack rafters for one end of a hip roof.

Tracking down the leak is the hard part. Side walls are primary load bearing walls in simple gable end framing but hip roofs and complex roof lines depend on more than just the side. In hip roof designs all four exterior walls support the ends of roof rafters so all exterior walls bear a weight load from the roof above them. We ll show you some simple tricks for finding and repairing most of the common types of leaky roofs.

Not all exterior walls are bearing walls though. A hip roof hip roof or hipped roof is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls usually with a fairly gentle slope although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak.