Today I want to discuss the best roof style for your new shed.
The 3 most popular shed roof styles are the gable, the barn style and the flat roof or single slope roof or lean-to style. Which one of these roof styles you will use for your new shed depends on a number of factors. Each roof style has it’s advantages and disadvantages.
You may not have a choice if your home owners association or zoning laws requires that your shed match your home. But most of the time you will have a choice.
A gable roof is probably the most popular because it’s symmetrical and is easy to construct. And shingle are relatively economical, easy to install, and look good. And they will last for 20 plus years with proper maintenance.
You will choose a roof pitch depending on the weather in your area. You’ll want to use a steep roof pitch for rain, snow and lots of falling leaves. In more temperate climate areas a shallow pitch will save on the construction cost and have a lower overall height.
Or you can just use a roof pitch that matches your home for maximum curb appeal.
Barn style sheds look great and have lots of overhead storage. You can easily add almost 50% more storage cheaply by building a loft.
But if you build with too short of walls you will actually lose storage space because the shorter walls are useless for shelves or vertical storage. But it will still looks good…
Barn style trusses are easy to build when you use my simple truss jig.
However youll need to be more careful because of the additional roof height. You might be working 14 to 16 ft above the ground a large barn style roof. A fall from that height can really hurt you.
But this extra effort is offset by the additional storage space you gain.
However all that extra height might block your views, or it might look out-of-place in a confined yard.
Shed Roofs offer the lowest possible overall height in cases where you’re concerned about view, or if you have a home owners association or zoning requirements that have height restrictions.
A downside is no overhead storage and you can’t use it where snow load is an issue. And you can’t use shingles in most cases because the pitch is usually too shallow. So you’ll need to use rolled roofing mineral roofing or metal. Rooled roofing is cheap and easy to install but it doesn’t last too long. Maybe 3 to 5 years.
Metal costs a little more but is good for 30 to 50 years.
You can easily add a porch with the same roof line on a single sloped shed. This makes it look built in and very attractive.
A single sloped roof is also good if you need to control the direction of water flow off the roof. For example if you’re building up against an existing structure, or on a property line where you don’t want the water going into your neighbors property.
Of these 3 popular rooflines, the barn style roof is my favorite choice because of the looks and extra storage space in the loft. That’s if you have the room on your property so that it doesnt block your views.
The gable style always looks good and is easy to build.
The flat roof style works best when overall height is an issue or you don’t want to block yours or your neighbors views.
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