Tiki Hut Roof Options

Basic Tiki Hut Structure

• Tiki huts are usually framed in bamboo or cypress, but other woods can be used. Some manufacturers use metal poles and frames. The shape is dictated by the hut's use. Tiki hut bars are usually rectangular or circular, with the centrally located bar often serving as a structural element with posts rising from it to support the roof. Tiki huts can be modest two-posted structures housing a single picnic table or large enough to accommodate a big family gathering with six to eight support posts. They can be rectangular, square or hexagonal. Sides of tiki huts are open to the air. Roofs are most commonly circular, hip or gabled. Thatching materials can be plant materials such as palm fronds, bamboo or various types of grasses, but synthetic materials are also available.

Hip Roofs

• Square tiki huts use the square hip roof design. Four equally sized equilateral triangles are steeply angled up from the wide base of the triangle that rests on the square building frame. The triangles meet along the sides and at the tips. Horizontal framing elements fill in the triangle's opening, and natural thatching elements are attached to these elements. If synthetic thatching is used, the triangles are made of plywood. Rectangular hip roofs are constructed with a ridge down the center of the long roofing pieces, which are trapezoids. Hip roofs give excellent shedding of rain and debris.

Circular Roofs

• Tiki huts and tiki hut bars with circular roofs can be reminiscent of the tiki umbrella with a single central supporting pole rising in the middle of the bar or hut. Larger structures have four supporting poles. Roofs can be framed with bamboo or wooden poles in a pattern resembling a spider web for attachment of natural materials. For synthetic thatching, framing resembling the spokes of a wheel support solid wood pieces that thatching is stapled to.

Gable Roofs

• Two long identical rectangles sloped to join at the rooftop constitute a gabled roof. The slope can be angled sharply to shed water. The ends of the roof are left open or are covered with a vertical panel of thatching. These roofs need cross bracing for support and are more liable to wind damage. They can be used to make large buildings.

Thatching Options

• Natural materials used for thatching tiki huts are those used in warm climates. They include palm leaves; alang-alang grass, also called Balinese thatch; elephant grass and African reed. Thatch panels are available in both natural and synthetic materials. They are overlapped on subroofing, which must be waterproofed for synthetic panels. Rolls of braided natural palm leaves can be stapled in overlapping rows to tiki hut roofs. Synthetic materials are made into a product called grass shingles. These are applied to a plywood tiki roof as you would asphalt shingles. They are fire retardant and resemble shaggy grass thatching.