The roof eaves of a house are the edges of the roof that overhang the exterior walls. They are part structure, part weather barrier, and part style statement, and they shape the silhouette of almost every classic home. Eaves are characteristic of traditional architecture. Contemporary homes may have narrow or no eaves for a minimal, […]
A slate roof sits at the top of the residential roofing hierarchy, and the reasons are easy to quantify. Natural slate is quarried stone cut into thin tiles. It is fireproof, insect-proof, and waterproof, and a well-maintained slate roof can last a century or two. Those strengths come with a heavy price tag and a
Metal roofs shed rain, survive hail, and outlast asphalt shingles by decades, but a bare metal deck does almost nothing to slow heat transfer. In an uninsulated building the roof is the single largest surface for thermal loss, which puts insulation near the top of the energy agenda. The options run from fiberglass batts and
Hail is one of the most common causes of roof damage in the United States, and one of the most misunderstood. A storm that drops pea-sized stones can pass without a scratch, while a short burst of golf-ball hail can wreck an asphalt roof in minutes. The damage is often invisible from the ground, which
Mansard roofs show up on Second Empire houses, urban row homes, and plenty of modern renovations, and the silhouette is easy to spot: a low, nearly flat top with steep, wall-like lower slopes on all four sides. The design began in 16th century France and spread because it added a full floor of usable space
A mansard roof, also called a French roof or curb roof, is a four-sided hip-style roof with two slopes on every side: a steep lower slope that is nearly vertical and a gently sloping upper slope that is hidden from street level. The profile creates a full additional floor inside the roof, which is why
Modified bitumen roofing is one of the most widely installed low-slope roofing systems in North America and Europe. The membrane is a factory-fabricated sheet built from asphalt modified with polymers such as styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) or atactic polypropylene (APP), reinforced with a mat of polyester or fiberglass, and surfaced with mineral granules or a smooth coating.
Icicles hanging from the eaves look pretty in winter light, but they are usually a warning sign rather than a decoration. When snow accumulates on a roof, melts near the warm ridge, and refreezes along the cold overhang, it forms a ridge of ice called an ice dam. That dam backs water up under the
Re-roofing a 24×24 garage starts with one number: how many shingles do I need for a 24×24 garage? The answer sets the budget, the delivery size, and the length of the job, and getting it wrong costs time in both directions. Order too few and the crew stops mid-roof waiting on a second truck; order
A hip roof slopes down on all four sides, with each face meeting the walls at the eaves and the faces meeting each other at the ridge. Because there are no vertical gables, the roof presents a low, compact profile that sheds wind from every direction at once. Builders have used the form for centuries,
