HOUSE FEATURES

Roofs

Roofs

The roof is a very important part of any house, but it is often under-appreciated.

By Jackie Craven http://jackiecraven.com/

Whether composed of slate, tile, wood, metal, or modern composites, the roof defines the personality of the house. An uncomplicated roofline will suggest quiet dignity, while an elaborate roof with cross-gables or turrets may seem like icing on an already delicious cake. Often, you will be able to identify the home’s overall architectural style simply by observing two key features: shape and pitch.

SHAPE

 

• Gable. Have you ever watched a group of kindergartners draw pictures of their homes? The drawings are often remarkably similar. In North America, a simple square topped by a triangle has come to symbolize home and all its comforts. And no wonder. The classic gable—or triangular—roof dates back to ancient Greece. Inspired by the Parthenon and other great temples, early builders in Northern Europe constructed homes with triangular gables at the front or the sides. Many American housing styles, from Colonial to Contemporary, have gable roofs. The triangular forms are often echoed in dormers, door pediments, porches, and wings.
  
   

• A-frame. Introduced in 1957 by the architect Andrew Geller, an A-frame home is all roof with no perpendicular walls. These distinctive A-shaped homes are usually built as vacation cottages.
  
   

• Saltbox. Named after the boxes used to store salt during Colonial times, a saltbox roof forms a lopsided triangle. The slanting saltbox shape became popular during Colonial times when low, one-story rooms were added to the rear of taller homes. Twentieth-century Split Level homes also can have a saltbox roofline, usually facing the front.
  
   

• Shed. Often used for porches, a shed roof is essentially half a gable. The simple, streamlined shape is a favorite for Contemporary homes.
  
   

• Gambrel. A gambrel roof is a gable with a slight bend on each side. This popular roofing shape, often used for barns, is a hallmark of the Dutch Colonial style.
  
   

• Hipped. A hipped (or hip) roof slopes down to the eaves on all four sides. It may form a perfect pyramid with a single point at top, or it may slope down from a ridge. Hipped roofs are often found on French-inspired, American Foursquare, and a variety of Colonial and Victorian styles.
  
   

• Mansard. Nearly flat on top, a mansard roof slopes almost vertically down on all four sides. In 17th-century France, this elegant style became popular because it created extra living space in the attic. In the United States, mansard roofs are a hallmark of the Second-Empire style. You also may find variations of the mansard roof shape on Contemporary homes.

PITCH

• Flat. A sloping roof is practical for deflecting rain and snow, but in arid parts of the world, slope is less important. Southwestern house styles, such as Pueblo and Spanish Eclectic, often have flat roofs. The development of more durable roofing materials has eliminated concerns about the weather, and flat roofs are common on modern, International-style homes and many urban townhouses.
  
   

• Slight Pitch. Gable, hipped, shed, and other roof shapes with very gradual slopes may appear almost flat. Mediterranean and Italianate-style homes often have subtle rooflines. Low, gently pitched roofs also are characteristic of many 20th century styles, including Craftsman Bungalow, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie-style houses, and the ever-popular Ranch.
  
   

• Dramatic Pitch. A gable roof that is narrow and extremely steep is almost always inspired by Gothic traditions. Imitating the churches of Medieval Europe, Gothic Revival and Carpenter Gothic houses create a sense of vaulting height with tall, pointed gables.

DETAILS AND ELABORATIONS

It’s not unusual for several roof shapes to combine on a single house. An elaborate style such as Queen Anne may have a hipped roof with side gables and a round tower. Multiple shed roofs sloping at odd, unexpected angles can bring excitement to a Contemporary home. Still other styles might feature cupolas, parapets, or stately rows of dormers

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Dormers

BY LINDA LEGNER

Dormers have been featured in American architecture since the late 1600s. Although they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, all dormers are windows with their own roof, which is set vertically into the roof of the building itself.

Being able to recognize different types of dormers will give you a big clue to a home’s architectural style. Here are some of the most important points to remember for dormers, so the next time you see one of these “roof” windows you’ll be able to call it by its true name.

Its History

The origin of dormers goes back centuries to French architect Francois Mansart (1598-1666), who introduced the Mansard style—known for its four-sided, double-pitched roof that has a lower slope that is especially steep. The deep rooflines embraced tall attic spaces that could serve as an additional floor of sleeping areas without exceeding prevailing Parisian height restrictions—if light and ventilation could somehow be introduced.

Solution: Mansart inserted a sequence of windows into the sloping roofs to make the attics habitable. This history is reflected in the name of the windows: “Dormer” comes from the French word dormir, which means to sleep.

Dormers have played a similar role in American residential construction. Modest single-story houses (like the simple but charming Cape Cods built from the 1600s through the 1950s) frequently used dormers to enhance interior space that would otherwise be good for little but storage. More elaborate homes of three and four stories, not at all unlike those going up today, often display a horizontal string of dormers at the roofline.

A less commonly seen dormer type, the wall dormer, locates the window flush with the wall plane above or through the cornice line. This establishes the dormer more as a vertically projecting wall element than as an elaboration of the roof. Unlike roof dormers, wall dormers tend to feature highly ornamental surrounds.

Dormer Details

Dormers take a variety of shapes, from simple to sophisticated:
 

• Flat

• Shed

• Gabled

• Pedimented

• Hipped

• Deck

• Arched

• Oval

• Eyebrow

• Inset

• Composite (includes several of the above forms)

How Dormers Describe Style

All dormers, whether roof or wall, add texture and intricacy to exterior facades while bringing much needed light and air inside. So dormers of any type serve an important purpose.

Some dormer treatments almost undeniably describe particular styles. For example, you can be pretty certain when you see a steeply pitched gable dormer filled with multiple geometric panes and accented with cutout bargeboard ornament that the style is Gothic Revival. Exposed, extended rafter ends on a hipped dormer tend to signal Craftsman architecture.

But because dormers assume so many shapes, it helps to know the primary characteristics of various styles in order to identify a particular style. Dormer detective work is only part of the identification process.

A grasp of roof shapes and embellishments, wall materials and treatments, window types and arrangement, door shapes, porch/column configuration, and other exterior ornamental details can help put a house more definitively in one camp vs. another.

• Gable dormers: Colonial Revivial, Georgian, Shingle, Queen Anne, Stick, Chateauesque, Tudor, and Craftsman, to name a few

• Hipped dormers: Prairie, Shingle, Craftsman

• Arched dormers: Second Empire, Beaux Arts, French Eclectic

• Oval dormers: French Eclectic, Beaux Arts, possibly Italian Renaissance

• Shed dormers: Craftsman, Arts & Crafts, Colonial Revival

• Eyebrow dormers: Shingle, Romanesque, Queen Anne

• Pedimented dormers: Georgian, Federal, Colonial Revival styles

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Window shapes

• Pointed Arch. Rooted in the tradition of medieval cathedrals, narrow windows with pointed arches are common on Victorian Gothic homes. Wider, squat Gothic arches are characteristic of Tudor homes.

• Rounded Arch. Rounded, or Roman, arches hearken from Renaissance Italy, when Andrea Palladio and other architects designed buildings modeled after ancient Greek and Roman forms. You are likely to see windows with gently curved archways on Italian Renaissance and Victorian Italianate homes.

• Palladian. Named after the Renaissance architect, a Palladian window is divided into three parts, with rectangular panes on each side of a wide arch. Placed at the center on an upper story, a Palladian window is an elegant focal point in Federal, Queen Anne, and Classical Revival homes.

• Semi-circular and Oval. Like rounded arches, half-circles and ovals are classically expired. These accent windows are a hallmark of the graceful Adam style and have continued to be used through Victorian and modern times.

• Triangle and Trapezoid. Angular shapes add drama to contemporary homes. A cathedral window forms a narrow triangle as it stretches across the room, following the line of a slanted roof. A gambrel window follows the line of a gambrel roof.

Glazing patterns

Although many windows are made from a single sheet of glass, you may notice a variety of glazing patterns or windowpane arrangements.
 

• Six, Nine, or 12 Panes. Windows with many small, square panes suggest a Colonial, Georgian, and Federal influence.

• Diamond-shaped. Diamond-shaped panes are characteristic of Tudor, English cottage, and some Mission-style homes.

• Leaded Glass. Secured with thin strips of lead, pieces of clear, frosted, beveled, or stained glass are arranged in dazzling patterns. Many glassmakers have imitated Tiffany’s floral designs and Frank Lloyd Wright’s abstract geometrics.

Window location

From semi-circular openings in the door to romantic skylights in the roof, the placement of the windows can be as important as their shapes.
 

• Ribbon. Common in Prairie, Craftsman, and 20th century homes, several windows are placed in a row, with their frames abutting.

• Five Ranked. Georgian-style homes almost always have five rectangular windows equally spaced across the second story.

• Sidelights. Neoclassical and Greek Revival homes often have sidelights—tall narrow windows—flanking the entry door.

• Fanlights. Adam and other classically styled homes may have semicircular fanlights or sunburst lights above the entry door.

• Bay Windows. Originating during Medieval times, bay and oriel windows became popular during the Victorian era. Bay windows jut out from the side of the house. An oriel window projects from an upper story and is supported by decorative brackets. A bow window is made with curved glass.

Opening windows

An ornamental window, such as a fanlight, is usually fixed, but most windows are composed of sashes that glide, hinge, or pivot.
 

• Double-Hung. Also known as a Georgian window, this traditional style has sashes that slide up and down.

• Traverse. Often found on contemporary homes, traverse window sashes slide side to side.

• Casement. Craftsman, Tudor, Mission, and various 20th century styles often have casement windows. They are hinged on the side and open with cranks. A French window is actually two casement windows placed side by side.

• Awning, Hopper, and Transom. An awning window is hinged at the top and opens out. A transom window is hinged at the top and opens into the room. A hopper (or eyebrow) window is hinged at the bottom and opens into the room.

• Jalousie. Practical for sun porches, jalousie windows function like Venetian blinds with narrow slats of glass that crank open and closed.

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COLUMNS

There are three basic column styles for single-family homes, derived from ancient Greek architecture.



The Doric column is the oldest and simplest Greek style--its found on the Parthenon in Athens. This column features fluted sides, a smooth rounded top, or capital, and no separate base.




Ionic columns are identified by the scroll-shaped ornaments at the capital, which resemble a ram’s horns. The Ionic column rests on a rounded base.




Corinthian columns are the latest of the three Greek styles and show the influence of Egyptian columns in their capitals, which are shaped like inverted bells. Capitals are also decorated with olive, laurel, or acanthus leaves. Corinthian columns rest on a base similar to that of the Ionic style.

In modern times, features of the three styles were mixed. Greek-influenced columns are frequently found in Greek Revival, Neoclassic, and Southern Colonial homes. Later Neoclassic versions (beginning in late 1800s and early 1900s) of these columns were often thinner and didn't have fluting.

Although Greek-influenced columns are by the far the most widely used in modern architecture, other column styles also occur.



Egyptian columns are thought to be modeled after the shape of the lotus flower indigenous to the Nile. These columns taper out at the top and are often ornamented with palm-like leaves near the capital. Other features include horizontal rings about one-quarter and three-quarters of the way up the shaft. Variations on these columns appeared in Egyptian Revival homes built during the mid-1800s.



Romanesque columns were used by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson in the mid-1800s to support the massive Roman arches in his Romanesque Revival homes. These squat, square columns often rest on massive, trapezoid-shaped bases, or piers, and often have floral or other decorations on their capitals. Simpler pier columns, often with wider bottoms than tops, are also common in Mission and Craftsman homes.

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ARCHES

• Round or Roman. This arc forms a semi-circle. Often made of masonry, Roman arches still stand in the Coliseum. You can find this type of arch in a variety of styles, including Italianate and Italian Renaissance, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Spanish Eclectic or Spanish Colonial. It’s important to note that unlike the Romans, ancient Greeks did not use arches; a Greek Revival house will feature straight lines and Classical columns but very few curves.

• Segmental. A segmental arch has a partial curve, somewhat like an eyebrow. These arches are seen in Italianate and Colonial Revival styles. One of the earliest examples of a segmental arch in the West is the Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence, Italy, which was built in the 14th century.

• Gothic or Pointed. Pointed Arches are almost always associated with the Gothic Revival style, which came to America from Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and includes architectural elements from the original Gothic Period in Europe. You can often find these arches along with other Gothic details such as a steep gabled roof, foil details, gingerbread style lattice work, verandas, and bay and oriel windows.

• Tudor. Tudor arches are often described as "flattened" Gothic arches. They feature a point at the crown, but the span is much wider than the Gothic style, and they are seen most in Tudor Revival and Gothic Revival styles.

• Moorish or Horseshoe. A Moorish, or horseshoe arch, extends beyond a semi-circle. The top of the arch is rounded and then curves in slightly before descending. This type of arch is indicative of an exotic and Moorish Revival style seen in the early 20th century. This is not widely seen in the United States and this shape of arch was mostly used on commercial buildings.

Always Exciting

Whether featured in a door, window, or porch, an arch adds focus to an otherwise simple exterior. As part of an already elaborate façade, it adds to the visual excitement.

Rarely does the shape of an arch single-handedly define the architectural style of a home. But you’ll identify the overall style with more certainty if you also grasp the basic characteristics of each style—including roof shape, primary exterior materials, window shapes and arrangement, door shapes, as well as any other key stylistic details.

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MOLDINGS

Moldings are narrow, decorative strips of wood or plaster used around doors and windows and at the structural intersections of walls.

Six classic molding types include:

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WOOD FLOORS

• Strip. You’ll recognize strip flooring by its uniform-width boards that are less than three inches wide and run in the same direction. This is the classic hardwood floor seen in all sorts of home designs, from traditional to modern. But it’s not a rustic look.

• Plank. This style features boards that are three or more inches wide and of uniform width. When you think of an old farmhouse, it’s likely to have knotty pine plank floors with the boards a foot or more wide. In contemporary design, you also may see plank floors, but probably made with a hardwood rather than with pine.

• Random-width plank. Planks of varying width and length are used to create a rustic look.

• Parquet. In this style, wood is inlaid in a repeated geometric pattern. A solid wood parquet floor can have a very sophisticated look with a distinct European feel. There are different parquet patterns, but a famous one is the Parquet de Versailles, which is in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in France. These days it’s expensive to install traditional solid wood parquet floors and often you’ll see a more simple prefabricated parquet pattern made with a wood veneer (thin strips of wood affixed to a backing). Newer apartments will often have these veneered parquet floors.

• Herringbone. Strips of wood are set in a zig-zag design (also called a chevron pattern) to create the herringbone look. It has a formal appearance and often is seen in older apartments and houses. Brick and tile also can be laid in a herringbone pattern.

Is It the Real Thing?

Sometimes wood floors aren’t what they first appear to be. It’s not easy to tell just by glancing at a floor whether it’s made of solid wood, a veneer, or a laminate. When in doubt, ask the owner or call in an expert.

Traditional wood floors are made with solid wood that is typically three-quarters of an inch thick. A solid-wood floor can be refinished numerous times and will last for decades, possibly even generations. Solid wood floors are a great asset to a house and will certainly catch the attention of buyers.

Other floors seen in today’s homes are made with a veneer of wood, which isn’t as solid as the traditional wood floor but can look very attractive and might be thick enough to refinish a couple of times. The lifespan of veneer wood floors can be decades long, depending on the product and the wear it gets.

Laminate floors — the most economical option — have been popular in Europe for years and are now gaining popularity in the United States. A photographic image of wood is glued to a backing, creating the appearance of a wood floor. The main benefits are affordability, easy installation, and durability. They can’t be refinished, but boards can be replaced if there’s damage. These, too, can last for years, but are not as permanent a fixture as a real wood floor.

Flexibility of Refinishing

The ability to refinish wood gives home owners lots of flexibility in the appearance of their floors, allowing them to change the color of the stain, remove paint, or fix up an overly distressed finish.

Refinishing a wood floor entails sanding, then staining or painting, and coating the floor with a finish. Wood floors historically had a wax finish, which develops a beautiful luster over the years but requires regular maintenance. Polyurethane finishes are more common now and require very little maintenance.

If you love everything about a house except for the color or finish of the wood floors, staining and refinishing the wood will provide a whole new look.

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EXTERIORS

What’s Best for Resale?

The value of a home and its rate of appreciation is tied in part to its exterior finish. For example, natural materials like stone or wood are generally prized over synthetics, such as vinyl siding. Even within a material category, there can be a value pecking order.

Masonry tends to add more value to a home than wood because it’s energy efficient, easy to maintain, fire-resistant, and permanent. According to the Brick Industry Association in Reston, Va., a brick exterior adds 6 percent to the resale value of a home.

Of all masonry options, however, stone trumps brick, being quarried vs. manmade. And brick that has an unusual finish, color, or shape is valued higher than a brick facade with more routine characteristics. In the wood category, cedar and redwood siding—which are highly resistant to damage from insects and rotting—typically add more value than fir, spruce, or pine siding.

What Materials Say About Style

In the earliest days of residential construction in the United States, builders were mostly confined to their local resources. In the East, log homes and houses built of heavy timber frames covered with boards or shingles predominated. In the West, sod dugouts and houses made of adobe or stone were most common, with log houses scattered in isolated forest areas.

When cross-country railroads united the nation and industrialized techniques emerged, builders were able to use materials from other regions and create more varied styles. Lumber yards, motorized saws, and mass-produced nails changed the face of home construction.

Today, it’s possible to build a home out of practically any material from anywhere in the world.

Here’s a roundup of popular building materials and the style of home most often associated with it:
 

• Adobe Brick. A mixture of sun-dried earth (usually clay) and straw. Surfaced with stucco, and very energy efficient—which is why you’ll often find this material in the Southwest. Found in Pueblo and Spanish Colonial architectural styles.

• Stucco. A mixture of cement, sand, and lime smoothed over adobe brick or frame construction. Found in buildings with Spanish or Mediterranean influences, as well as Tudor, Prairie, Mission, and Modern/International homes.

• Half-Timbering. This cladding features stucco, brick, or stone to fill the spaces between exterior timbers. Found in Tudor, Craftsman, and Queen Anne styles.

• Wood. Wood is usually overlapped in horizontal boards to create siding. A special application featuring vertical boards whose joints are finished by thin vertical strips is called “board and batten.” Wood is found in a wide array of styles, including Dutch Colonial, Gothic Revival (vertical board and batten), Stick, Queen Anne, Italianate, Colonial Revival, Craftsman, Bungalow, and Ranch.

• Shingles. Wood shingles are commonly used as a decorative counterpoint in combination with wood siding. Shapes can vary from a plain rectangular form to fish scale, saw tooth, diamond, hexagon, octagon, and chisel patterns. Found in these styles: Shingle (plain or patterned; the entire house is often covered top to bottom with shingles), Queen Anne (patterned), and Craftsman (plain).

• Stone. Large blocks are laid in a load-bearing configuration. Found in these styles: Richardsonian Romanesque (rough-faced), Beaux Arts (smooth), Chateauesque (smooth), and Italian Renaissance (smooth).

• Brick. Differences in color, coursing and bonding, dimension, and mortar joints contribute seemingly endless variety to this basic material. Found in a range of styles, including Georgian, Federal, Colonial Revival, Victorian Gothic, Victorian Romanesque, Italianate, Craftsman, Bungalow, Prairie, and Ranch.

Pinpointing the Style

With very few exceptions, architectural styles can’t be rigidly described by a single surface material. Take ranch and bungalow homes; both can feature brick or wood siding. Or there’s Prairie, which can sport stucco or brick.

To narrow down a style, add what you now know about cladding to what you see elsewhere in the house. Notice the shape of the roof, the windows and doors, decorative touches.

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Residential House Styles

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