Traditional Hipped Roof

Hip Roof Defined

• In a gable roof, the roof slopes inward to a central ridge on two sides, but the roof on the other two sides ends at a vertical wall, forming a triangular gable under the peak of the roof. A hip roof is similar, but the roof slopes inward on all four sides; all four slopes meet at the central ridge, and the intersections of the four roof surfaces are called hips.

Advantages

• A hip roof has several advantages over a gable roof. Because the overall mass of a hip roof is smaller than that of a gable roof on a building of comparable size, the weight load of the roof on the structure below is less. The roof line of a hip roof is lower at the ends of the building than that of a gable roof, so it's a good choice when you want to minimize the visual weight of the building. Hip roofs are also structurally stronger because the hips provide support that isn't present in a gable roof.

Framing

• The framing of a hip roof consists of a horizontal ridge board that defines the peak of the roof and rafters that angle up from the tops of the walls to form the roof slopes. Full-length rafters oriented perpendicular to the ridge board and that run all the way from the ridge to the walls are called common rafters. Rafters that run diagonally from the corners of the building to the ends of the ridge board are called hip rafters. Shorter rafters that run from the walls to the hip rafters are called hip jacks.

Dutch Hip Roof

• One traditional variation on a basic hip roof is called a Dutch hip roof, which is essentially a hip roof with a gable roof sitting on top of it. In this roof design, the slope of the roof on two parallel sides of a rectangular building rises all the way to the ridge, but the slope on the other two sides stops short of the ridge. Above this partial-height slope, a triangular gable fills the space under the ridge.