Roof shapes differ greatly from region to region. The main factors which influence the shape of roofs are the climate and the materials available for roof structure and the outer covering. Roof terminology is also not rigidly defined. Usages vary slightly from region to region, or from one builder or architect to another. Roof shapes vary from almost flat to steeply pitched. They can be arched or domed; a single flat sheet or a complex arrangement of slopes, gables and hips; or truncated to minimize the overall height.
Roof shapes
Flat: These are found in traditional buildings in regions with a low precipitation. Modern materials which are highly impermeable to water make possible the very large low-pitch roofs found on large commercial buildings. Although referred to as flat they are generally gently pitched.
* Roof terrace : the same with protections from falling such as a balustrade, parapet walls or surrounding raised plant beds used as a living or public dining space.
Mono-pitched roofs
* Mono-pitched roof : A roof with one slope, historically attached to a taller wall.
* Saw-tooth: A roof comprising a mono-pitched roof or for larger buildings, series of, mono-pitched roofs with vertical surfaces glazed and pitched upward in general terms away from the equator, though other directions suit if direct sunlight is desired and where rooftop access may otherwise be impracticable. The roof tops are opaque, shielding traditionally workers and machinery from direct sunlight. This sort of roof commonly admits natural light into a factory, and is also known as "Northlight" in the northern hemisphere implying a single such plane.
Pent roof : A roof appended, thus the name, to the wall of a building and by implication having further roofs or terraces above.
** Cross gabled: The result of joining two or more gabled roof sections together, forming a T or L shape for the simplest forms, or any number of more complex shapes.
**See also roof pitch, crow-stepped, corbie stepped, stepped gable: A gable roof with its end parapet walls below extended slightly upwards and shaped to resemble steps.
* Half-hipped : A combination of a gable and a hip roof with the hipped part at the top and the gable section lower down.
* Dutch gable, gablet: A hybrid of hipped and gable with the gable at the top and hipped lower down; i.e. the opposite arrangement to the half-hipped roof. Overhanging eaves forming shelter around the building are a consequence where the gable wall is in line with the other walls of the buildings that is unless the upper gable or gables is or are recessed.
* Saltbox, catslide: A gable roof with one side longer than the other, and thus closer to the ground unless the pitch on one side is altered.
* Outshot or catslide: A pitched extension of a main roof similar to a lean-to but an extension of the upper roof.
* Bonnet roof: A reversed gambrel or Mansard roof with the lower portion at a lower pitch than the upper portion.
* Monitor roof: A roof with a monitor; 'a raised structure running part or all of the way along the ridge of a double-pitched roof, with its own roof running parallel with the main roof.'
* Butterfly roof : A V-shaped roof resembling an open book. A kink separates the roof into two parts running towards each other at an obtuse angle.
* Karahafu: A type of gable found in some traditional Japanese buildings.
* Hidden roof: A type of Japanese roof construction.
*Hip, hipped: A hipped roof is sloped in two pairs of directions compared to the one pair of direction for a gable roof.
* Half-hipped: A hybrid of a gable and a hipped roof.
* Dutch gable, gablet: The reverse hybrid of a hipped and a gable roof.
* Cross hipped: The result of joining two or more hip roof sections together, forming a T or L shape for the simplest forms, or any number of more complex shapes.
* Satari: A Swedish variant on the monitor roof; a double hip roof with a short vertical wall usually with small windows, popular from the 17th century on formal buildings.
