The Mansard Roof
The house with the mansard roof is something like a house with the highest floor completely roofed not only from the top but from all sides as well.
Mansard roof is a type of roof which lower part is almost vertical or has a very steep pitch. On the other hand, it´s upper (top) part is almost flat (do you remember the
Flat Roof Article? No
flat roof is really flat!).
The mansard roofs got their name from the famous French architect Francois Mansart (do not change with the architect of Place Vendome, Jules Hardouin Mansart) who, actually, was not the mansard roof inventor (Pierre Lescot used this type of roof for the palace of Louvre) but revived it and made it very popular in 17th century.
Mansard roofs advantages
- mansard roofs offer the largest interrior space under the roof;
- the sides (side walls) of the highest floor (loft/ceiling in this case) are much better protected against weather than the masonry gables of simple gable roof or gambrel roof;
- mansard roofs look grrrreat, if done properly;
- no problems with slant skylight
windows, everything´s almost vertical.
Mansard roof disadvantages
Being practically the flat roof, the upper part of mansard roof suffers from the same diseases the flat roofs often suffer:
- ice and snow makes problems, too much snow can exceed the maximum load of the roof, so you will need to take care of it during tougher winters with the mansard roof;
- waterproofing is much more difficult as you cannot use the overlapping shingles (or any other roofing material blocks) on the top part of the mansard roof. Anyway, these days this problem can be easily resolved with the modern high-quality flat roof systems.
