A gable roof with a triangular extension at each end of the house, with the roof section boxed at the end. This design is extremely similar to the standard gable roof, but distinguishes the triangular section of the design more.

A clerestory roof has an interior wall built extending above one section of the roof, with this section of wall often lined with several windows, or one long window. The sections of roof either side of the vertical wall are typically sloping, allowing a large amount of natural light into the windows.

A roof shape that is circular on the bottom and rises to terminate in a point, the whole forming a regular cone in shape.

A cross gable roof consists of two or more gable rooflines that intersect at an angle, most often with the two ridges placed perpendicular to one another.

A cross hipped roof is a common roof type, with perpendicular hip sections that form an ‘L’ or ‘T’ shape in the roof hip. Hip and valley roofs have a total of four sloping surfaces, with two joined on a common ridge, and the other two on either end of the central ridge.

A curved vault that is erected on a circular base and that is semicircular, pointed, or bulbous in section.

A flat roof without edges, which is almost level but may have a slope of up to 10 degrees.

A flat roof with the walls of the building extending upwards past the roof by a few feet around the edges. The addition of a parapet makes a flat roof far safer, providing a small barrier that provides additional security to reduce the likelihood of anyone standing the roof falling over the edge.

A roof where all sides slope downwards towards the eaves, with a small gable on both ends of the ridge.

A ridged roof having two slopes on each side where the lower slope is steeper than the upper. Most commonly seen in barns, this roof is a symmetrical two-sided roof with a shallow upper-section, and steeper lower slope on each side.

A half hipped roof is almost identical to a simple hip roof design, but instead, the two sides of the roof are shortened, creating eaves at either side of the house.

Formed of six triangular identically pitched roof panels.

A type of roof where all sides slope downwards from a top decking to the eaves.

A four-sided, double-sloped roof, where the lower slope is steeper than the upper slope. The lower slope is typically punctured by dormer windows.

Formed of eight triangular identically pitched roof panels. Builders often choose this shape when they need to roof a building that’s round or nearly round. Instead of dealing with the awkward fractions that another shape might require, they simply divide 360 degrees into half, then half again, then half a final time, winding up with the 22 1/2-degree angle that’s needed to build an eight-sided roof.

A pitched roof that ends in a gable, with two sloping sides that meet to form a ridge, and is most easily identified by the triangular shape formed at either end.

An M-shaped roof is double-pitched roof; essentially a double gable. The roof rests on two bearing walls with two sloping walls meeting in the middle to form an ‘M’ shape.

A small shed roof attached to the wall of a house without brackets, sloping in one direction only.

A pyramid hip roof is identical to a simple hip roof, but the walls are square rather than rectangular, making the shape of the building’s roof slope come to a point in a pyramid shape at the top with no ridge line.

A gable roof with two stories at the front and one story at the rear; having a short sloping roof on the front and a long sloping one on the back.

A single-sloped roof surface, often not attached to another roof surface.

A roof where all sides slope downwards from the ridge to the eaves, with no gables or vertical sides of the roof.

A type of hip roof that has four sides that are all triangle shaped and all slope downward. They are built onto a square or rectangular frame. Pyramid roofs are a popular choice for a shed and gazebos.

The gable end of a building that is constructed with a series of steps along the roof slope but independent of it.