Old Barn Roof Construction

The gable roof on dutch and prairie barns the cone shaped dome shaped eight or twelve sided roof of round barns and the gambrel roof of the typical barn are among the most prominent features on these buildings.

Old barn roof construction.

What we think of as a classic barn with the gambrel roof is a dairy barn but there were smaller barnlike structures for different types of animals or different kinds of crops. A gambrel roof is a popular roof style on many contemporary barns and sheds. The design of a barn especially if it is very old is bound with the weather requirements of the area and the particular cultural traditions of the farmers in the region says nancy w. Barns are no exception.

Some owners build new more easily maintained pole barns for their animals and fix up their old barns to use for storage or farm stands. A number of methods were used to form the wooden walls and the types of structural carpentry are often defined by the wall floor and roof construction such as log timber framed balloon framed or stacked plank. Gambrel roofs are symmetrical with two slopes on each side of the roof. Later farms came to specialize in certain crops and barns became specialized as well dairy fruit grains tobacco poultry etc.

The roof is among the most important elements of building form. Ambrosiano co author of complete plans for building horse barns big small breakthrough publishing 2006 a steeply peaked roof for example is relevant to regions with considerable snowfall since.