Your roof design and construction is an important part of any build or renovation project.

And your roof design and construction is also a significant part of the long term durability and performance of your home.

Learn the 5 key points to know in your roof design, and how to get it right.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 270. In it, I’m going to share 5 key points to know about your roof design. 

If you’re getting ready for your renovation or new build, or you’re currently working on your floor plan design with an architect, building designer, draftsperson, directly with a builder, or you’re even designing your own home, this episode will be super helpful for you.

And remember, whilst your home is lines on a page, it’s actually not too late to make changes that will fix it, improve it, and ensure it’s a great quality home that improves your lifestyle and makes the aspirations, effort, time and money you’re investing in it all worthwhile.

Learn the 5 key points to consider when it comes to your roof design and construction, and to be discussing with your team. And the earlier you can discuss this, the better, because as you’ll hear, your roof design is best considered early in your design process, in order to get it right.

Now, let’s dive in!

One of the challenges I regularly see homeowners encounter is how their roof is designed for their home.

If you’re designing a new home, then it can feel quite straightforward to put a roof on it. 

For many, their designer or builder doesn’t even discuss it for quite some time. And then, as the floor plan is firming up and you’re signing off that you’re happy with the room sizes and arrangement, you then start being shown elevations and three dimensional views of the home’s exterior, and lo and behold, the roof. And that’s when you might find out that it doesn’t look how you want it to at all.

If you’re working on a renovation, then the roof design can also be left quite late in the process, which can mean that as the renovation works and extension design are being firmed up and committed to, you then have to figure out how a roof will go on the new part of the home. 

Often, this is where decisions are made that can cost a lot of your renovation budget, as the existing roof of the house has sections removed and added to it, and new guttering arrangements created to accommodate the roof to the new part of your home.

Your roof design has such a big impact on the appearance of your home, the performance of your home, and the comfort and durability of your home as well. 

In large, single storey homes, the roof will often be almost like an elevation of its own, especially with hip and gable designs, where the roof can be similar in height to the walls of the home.

The roof also needs to be detailed and constructed so it sheds water appropriately, makes maintenance more straightforward for you, and doesn’t cause issues with condensation within the roof structure, keeping roof framing and insulation damp and riddled with mould.

Many homeowners don’t really think about their ideal roof design. And they also don’t necessarily know how to describe it, the shape of it, or the specifications for it.

At best, they’ve thought about their desired ceiling design, which in many cases, will be shaped by the roof construction, and so that’s how the roof design is often driven. But in that process, many don’t understand what they’re setting themselves up for in the roof design and cost when asking for particular ceiling design outcomes. 

This is something I’m often answering questions about in HOME Method, as there can be more economical ways of achieving cathedral ceilings and the like, but if you don’t know this early, you can have a design and build team just delivering what you’ve been asking for, and not advising on how to achieve it more smartly or economically.

In this whole process, a lot is left to chance, with a lot of assumptions that a builder will appropriately detail and construct it. 

And yet, so many parts of the industry don’t appropriately detail and construct the roof, creating long term headaches, home degradation and financial issues for homeowners.

Want to avoid this in your project and future home?

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

RESOURCES: 

5 Tips for Your Ceiling Design – Episode 253 >>> ​​ ​​https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-5-design-tips-for-your-ceilings/

Same home, different roof types and elevations – UA Instagram >>> https://www.instagram.com/p/CoURoLUSNJL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Roof Design for your Outdoor Room or Alfresco – Episode 211 >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-roof-design-outdoor-room/

Roof Colour: Light or Dark? With Sid Thoo – Episode 208 >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-roof-colour-dark-vs-light-energy-efficiency-sid-thoo/

Episode 234 (then listen to Episode 235 and 236 which are Part 2 and Part 3) – Building Healthier Homes with James Cornell >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-building-healthier-homes-james-cornell-life-panels/

Mould in your home? Listen to my interview with Alexx Stuart, Low Tox Life – Episode 231 >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-mould-in-your-home-alexx-stuart-low-tox-life/

Access the support and guidance you need to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to get started with your home design with the Happy Home Design mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/happy-home-design

Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/projectplan