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Gentlemen,
I'm in the process of constructing a building using DPM's modular system. But I don't want to have a flat roof. I want a hip roof -- one that slopes in each linear direction, with no gables.
I know I could make one by "trial and error" -- and in the long run, that may well be the simplest way to do it. But it seems to me there should be a better way to do it... without the use of "way beyond me" mathematics!
Is there a better way to figure out the pieces needed? Have any of you scratchbuilt or kitbashed a hip roof, and maybe have some tips and tricks you you would be willing to share?
In advance -- thank you very much!!
Regards,
Tom Stockton
p.s. -- I'm planning on an interior to be visible through doorways / windows, but I will not be showing framing -- all visible rooms inside the building will have flat, finished ceilings.
I've only built one so I'm no expert but here's what I did. I made a cardstock pattern for one of the long sections and trimmed it on the top and sides until I was happy with the height and angles. Then I transferred this onto .030" sheet styrene to make the 2 long sides. With a little fidgeting while they were placed in position on the building I cemented the ridge joint together and when this had set up I reinforced the joint from the inside with a length of round styrene rod. Once all was dry I placed the piece on end onto sheet styrene so the bottom ends and the sheet styrene were flush against a straight edge and traced the outline of the ends onto the sheet stock. Cut that piece and attached it and then flipped the assembly onto its other end and repeated that to make the opposite side. Rod reinforcements again were added to the inside of the joints and when the cement had dried a little sanding to blend the joints and it was done. Joints need not be dead perfect since hip roofs had shingle caps running down all the joints as well as along the ridge peak but the better the raw joint the better the end result of course.
Jim and Mike,
Thank you for the replies!!
Regards,
Tom
You're welcome Tom. I hope you can make sense out of how I do it. There ws no real measuring or calculating involved. Just cut up the card and position it on the building until it looked right and then go from there. It is actually easier than you might think once you get going. Sorry to say I no longer have that building or I'd post a pic.
Good way to go about it, Mike. You can certainly rough in some cardstock and get the correct dimension faster than going through a bunch of calculations to arrive at the answer. I'll have to remember your method for other difficult roofs.
Sometimes it is how it looks rather than if it is 100% correct. That is why I just kept trimming and positioning the card until I liked it. Also saved a lot of phone calls to my 9th grade geometry teacher ( who is no doubt long dead ) to figure out trapezoids and complimentary angles.
Up here in the older areas of New England the hip roof is seen everywhere. Without doing any real research as to actual construction methods I based the one I built on those I had seen. I concluded that around a 45 degree angle seemed fairly common but others were a lot less steep. A lot of that might have been due to the architecture styles of the period. One thing I did seem to figure out was on real buildings the slope of the roofs were not so steep as to overpower the rest of the building by making it look top heavy because the peak was so high. Also the further north you go the steeper the pitch, most likely to shed snow. Today the hip roof is still being used locally on condo and joined townhouse types but the angles appear a lot less than was used in the past.
Now that the subject has been brought up by Tom it lit the spark to do another one on a structure.
Mike said:
Also the further north you go the steeper the pitch, most likely to shed snow.
I remember my father telling me that the steeper the slope on the roof, the less problems one would have with it -- rain, snow, sleet, ice, whatever, would run off from a steeper slope a lot easier. My uncle's house had a flat roof, and he had all kinds of trouble with leaks -- seems like he was up on the roof about once a month with a bucket of tar, trying to figure out where the water was coming in. When he sold the house several years ago, one of the first things the new owner did was add a hip roof...
I also remember Dad telling me that the steeper the slope, the harder it was for the roofers to work on the roof, and the more "stress and strain" they put on the roof as they installed or repaired it.
One other thing I read recently... A hip roof is preferred in areas prone to high winds, as the lack of a vertical element (gable) gives the wind less to push against.
Regards,
Tom
Tom, all your observations are correct. My house has a very steep pitched hip roof that's quite complex, with the hips meeting at six points. I would guess that the angle is about 35 degrees, steep enough that I would never attempt to get up on it. I paid extra for 30 year shingles because getting re-roofed would cost about as much as the national debt.
I have only very small eaves and the bottoms are vented plastic, so they'll blow out and relieve any air pressure that builds up under the roof. Down here, we are subject to tornados, strong straight line winds, and we're just close enough to the coast that a Category 4 hurricane can bring 100 mph winds our way. The roof is built to withstand 90 mph winds. Barring a direct hit by a tornado or the hurricane of the century, it should survive almost anything else.
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