Gambrel Vs Mansard Roof

In the united states second empire or mansard was a victorian style popular from the 1860s through the 1880s.

Gambrel vs mansard roof.

When it comes to technical terms you can call a mansard roof to be a four sided hip style gambrel roof. It is very similar to the gambrel roof style but this style utilizes all four sides of the house. The difference between the two is that the gambrel only has two sides while the mansard has four. The lower slope is much steeper than the upper.

Simply put the mansard roof also known as the french roof or curb roof is a hybrid between a gambrel roof and a hip roof. The hip roof style features straight gentle slopes extending downwards on all four sides to the walls. The cross section of a gambrel roof is similar to that of a mansard roof but a gambrel has vertical gable ends instead of being hipped at the four corners of the building. A mansard roof also known as a french roof is a four sided roof with a double slope on each side that meet forming a low pitched roof.

The sides can either be flat or curved depending on the style. Mansard roofs were considered especially practical because they allowed usable living quarters to be placed in the attic. Both mansard and gambrel roofs fall under the general classification of curb roofs a pitched roof that slopes away from the ridge in two successive planes. Similar to mansard the lower side of the gambrel roof has an almost vertical steep slope while the upper slope is much lower.

Here s how to think about the two different slopes. You can consider gambrel roof to be a modified version of a gable roof. However the mansard is a curb hip roof with slopes on all sides of the building and the gambrel is a curb gable roof with slopes on only two sides. The lower side of the roof will have a steep slope almost vertical while the upper side of the roof will have a much lower slope.

A gambrel roof has two sides with two slopes and the bottom slope is much steeper than the upper slope. This structure is more like a tent. If you are not familiar with a gambrel roof then let us first explain its architecture in brief. A gambrel or barn roof is much like mansard in a sense that it has two different slopes.

For this reason older buildings were often remodeled with mansard roofs. The term gambrel is nowhere to be found nor can i find a translation for in in a dutch dictionary however on one site which details a wide variety of roof shapes we find the following entry for mansard dak dak like the german dach meaning roof. However a gambrel roof only has 2 sides while a mansard roof has 4 sides. The difference between the two is that the gambrel only has two sides while the mansard has four.

A gambrel roof overhangs the façade whereas a mansard normally does not.