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The shed roof design that you choose will have a major influence on the appearance of your shed. Take a few moments to review the five major styles to make sure that you end up with a shed roof that you feel comfortable with.

1. The simplest design is the mono pitch or pent roof

This type of roof is a gentle slope to encouraging rain-water to run off. When building a house extension this style is also known as a 'shed roof'. This type of roof is useful where the overall shed height is controlled by the local city council. A point to watch here is that the covering is waterproof for the low roof slope.

2. The gable roof is a style we are all familiar with.

This type of roof has a central ridge and equal slopes downwards either side of the ridge. Make sure with this design that the covering can cope with the roof slope. Clay tiles often need a minimum roof pitch of 35 degrees (8 in 12), asphalt tiles with underlayment about 18 degrees (4 in 12).

3. The Salt box roof is a popular style in the United States.

With this style the ridge line of the roof is displaced to about one third of the way back from the front wall and the roof will typically have equal slopes of 12 in 12 on each side. Watch out when this style is used on pre-made sheds, basic formula is often tampered with. making the shed look unbalanced and out of place.

4. The Gambrel or barn roof is often known as a colonial Dutch barn.

This type of shed has a central ridge, each side starts off sloping gently and then about midway along the roof the slopes increases steeply. The great thing with this type of shed is the extra head room at the eaves. The extra headroom can be benefited from in two ways:

For low wall sheds the whole shed has a light airy feel.

Using a higher sidewall the ground floor can be fully utilised and a loft space created above for additional storage.

5. The hipped roof style is often considered the most attractive.

The hipped roof is similar to the gable style but the ends of the roof slope up to the ridge rather than being a vertical face. The hipped ends reduce the visual bulk of the shed and are an attractive architectural feature. The hip roof style is often used on summerhouses where roof storage is not a strong requirement, they can be slightly more complex to build than the gable roof, but to my mind well worth it.