How To Choose The Roof Style On Garden Buildings
The roof on garden sheds, summerhouses, workshops and log cabins is a crucial part of your new garden building so it is important that the right materials are used in its construction. The main purpose of the roof is to protect your valuables from rain and snow thus keeping them dry. Besides this is helps to ventilate the shed and aids the long life of your building
There are several designs for a shed roof such as an apex roof, sometimes referred to as a gable roof which looks like an upside down ‘V’. This design is very popular in Britain as it is quite attractive when situated in your garden. The basic design consists of two roof sections meeting in the middle of the shed workshop or summerhouse. This roof can slope in either direction, certainly the better shed manufacturers would be able to offer this. The pitch, or angle on the apex shed roof tends to be in the region of at least 15 degrees up to about 25 or 30 degrees. This allows water to flow easily of the roof and away.
A second design is the pent roof, sometimes called a ‘lean to’, although strictly speaking a ‘lean to’ would have 3 sides so the garden shed would be fixed to an existing house or wall. Another name is a mono-pitch and the characteristic of the pent roof is that it has a single slope on the roof. Normally a shallower pitch than you would find on an apex shed but very functional. This is a very simple design but is a very popular option. Can appear a little ‘boxy’ to look at but if it is out of sight can be very practical.
Some gardeners would use the storage space inside the roof space on the apex buildings but if you do it is important to provide extra strength to the roof itself. The reason for this is that the roof would have been designed to take the weight of the roof boards, the roofing felt and any snow which may lay on it during the winter. Provided you ensure you add extra support then this can offer extra storage for light items, such as plastic piping, copper pipes and timber beadings. The pent style garden shed benefits by having the highest space at the front and in this space you can fix shelves about the shed windows. This will give you extra storage space in a very convenient space and easy to get to.
Besides the apex and pent styles normally found on garden sheds and summerhouses there is another style which would normally only be found on top end summerhouses and that is the hip roof. This is like the roof on a detached house and consists of 4 parts meeting in the middle of the roof so water can drain off in all four direction. These types of roofs are quite complicated to make so would normally only be available in set sizes.
Another major consideration is the type of materials used to make the garden shed roof and also the type of material used to cover the roofs. You will find that quality garden office and summerhouse manufacturers will use material which will ensure a very long life for your building. At the other end of the scale you will find that unsuitable materials (for long term peace of mind) are used as the cheap sheds are made down to a price with the cheapest materials being used.
