Hip Roof

A hip (or hipped) roof is a roof in which every side slopes down toward the walls, so the eaves run around the whole building and there are no gables. On a rectangular building the two long sides are trapezoids meeting at a ridge, and the two short ends are triangles; the external corners where faces meet are the hips. On a square plan the faces meet at a single point, forming a pyramid roof.

Variants

• Simple hip: four planes, usually of equal pitch.
• Cross-hipped: two hip roofs joined in an L or T plan, with valleys at the junction; UK writers sometimes call this a hip-and-valley roof.
• Pyramid hip: all four faces meeting at a point on a square plan.
• Half-hip (jerkinhead) and Dutch gable: hybrids combining a hip and a gable.
• Mansard: a hip roof with two slopes on each side.

Advantages

• Wind resistance: with no flat gable walls and with edges braced by the hips, hip roofs generally perform better in hurricanes and strong winds than gable roofs, and are widely used in cyclone- and hurricane-prone regions.
• Eaves all round: overhangs on every side shade and protect all the walls.
• Stable: the inward slope of all faces makes the structure self-bracing.

Disadvantages

• More complex framing, with hip and jack rafters or a set of hip trusses.
• Less attic volume than a gable roof of the same pitch, and no gable walls for windows or louvres.
• Short ridges limit the length available for ridge vents, so hip vents or individual roof vents may be needed.
• More hips and valleys to cap and flash than a simple gable.

Global use

Hip roofs are widespread in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America for houses, and form the basis of traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese roofs, including the hip-and-gable (irimoya) form.