Saltbox Roof Line

Originally named for the wooden salt containers commonplace in the era saltbox houses are typically built from wood and easily spotted by their long slanted rear roof.

Saltbox roof line.

The first saltbox roofs appeared in new england around 1650. A salt box roof is asymmetrical in design with one side being more of slightly sloping flat roof and the other more of a lean to with gables at each end. Today there are not a lot of newly constructed homes that have this type of roof design. As a result you can often see a line on the open sides of saltbox houses where the former back wall of the house used to be.

A saltbox has just one story in the back and two stories in the front. This will result in one wall being higher than the other. The flat front and central chimney are recognizable features but the asymmetry of the unequal sides and the long low rear roof line are the most distinctive features of a saltbox which takes its name from its resemblance to a wooden lidded box in which salt was once kept. A saltbox roof is a design that was used extensively in the colonial era.

Saltbox houses are variations of early colonial and cape cod designs. Now you will see this type of rooftop design on garages sheds and outbuildings rather than on homes. The pitched roof that slopes down to the first floor was first created to cover a lean to addition at the rear of the original house. A gable roof with one side longer than the other and thus closer to the ground unless the pitch on one side is altered.

Overhanging eaves forming shelter around the building are a consequence where the gable wall is in line with the other walls of the buildings that is unless the upper gable or gables is or are recessed. They arose from the need for more room. How to tie a additions roof to existing roof roof designs to attach to existing home how to construct a roof from an exsisting shead how to attach a deck roof to existing roof how to add a roof over porch cost to tie into existing roof attache porch roof on house attach shed roof to house adding a roof to screened in porch adding a roof to existing. Browse inspirational photos of modern exteriors from houses to cabins apartments to shipping containers.

The style was first formed. A saltbox home which takes its name from the resemblance to a wooden lidded box in which salt was once kept is identified by its asymmetrically long rear roof line.