Roofs of houses with an attic: projects to choose from, tips for arranging and 5 real layouts

Are you interested in houses with a mansard roof? Let's find out how complicated this design is, and whether it is worth overpaying for it. And as a bonus, we will consider popular roof projects for private houses with an attic.

The first projects of houses with a mansard roof appeared in the 17th century, the birthplace of this direction is France, and the name comes from the architect Francois Mansart, it is believed that he was the first to design inexpensive apartments for guests in the attic.

Advantages and disadvantages

The number of houses with a mansard roof is growing steadily. Why do people love them?

• Attics are beneficial from a purely practical point of view, compared to a full-fledged second floor, the price of such roofs is 1.5–2 times lower;
• At relatively low costs, the useful area of ​​​​the house increases almost 2 times;
• Communications are easily mounted, you just draw a conclusion from the first floor and that's it;
• If you build in the summer, then you do not need to evict the tenants;
• With the availability of material and a competent approach, the work can be completed in 2-3 weeks;
• A mansard roof can be equipped not only at home, this design is great for baths, garages and other buildings;
• Mansard roof projects are not a plowed field for a designer, there are a lot of options here, but more on that later.

But the mansard roof of the house also has a number of significant drawbacks:

• The interior partitions of the second floor are usually made of drywall, which means that the sound insulation is "lame";
• Dormer windows are 1.5–2 times more expensive than ordinary ones;
• Not every old house can withstand such a design, the attic is lighter than a full-fledged second floor, but much heavier than a conventional truss system.

Types of structures

Types of attics are divided into several large areas, which in turn have several subspecies.

Illustrations	Recommendations
	Shed. Projects of houses with a shed mansard roof exist, but they are not relevant for our climate and I do not recommend them to you. They are built quickly and simply, but also quickly become unusable.
	gable. The classic plucked design is the most affordable to assemble, but in the attic under a gable roof, more than 30% of the usable area is lost. The maximum that can be achieved is 67% of the size of the first floor.
	Asymmetrical gable design it looks original, but the calculations there are complicated, although you can assemble such a roof with your own hands according to the finished project.
	The opinions of experts on a broken mansard roof differ, some consider it a subspecies of a gable roof, while others distinguish it as an independent direction. The undoubted plus here is that it is not a problem to find a broken mansard roof project of any size now, because it is one of the most popular, practical, and most importantly inexpensive designs.
	Four-pitched roofs. A hip roof stands out in this direction, the project here is more complicated than that of a gable roof, but this design is well suited for rectangular houses.
	Danish model four-pitched hip roof stands alone. The pediment of curved fillies and vertical windows make such a house a fabulous hut.
	Half hip roof this is a symbiosis of a gable and four-slope design. It looks decent, but the arrangement is problematic.
	hipped roof. The classic tent design is a regular square prism, it looks good, but a lot of useful attic area is lost.
	Original designs with sloping roofs. In this niche, I would advise you to pay attention to the roof of the Sudeikin design - this is a combination of original design and functionality. The video in this article has a step-by-step project for the roof of the house designed by Sudeikin.

Use of attic walls

Projects of attic structures with attic walls allow you to build a full-fledged living space on any house.

The attic wall is a continuation of the load-bearing walls of the perimeter of the house, the height of such a wall ranges from 0.8 to 1.5 m. It is enough for you to build a roof with a slope angle of more than 45º and the usable area of ​​the superstructure will increase up to 100%.

But keep in mind: in order to build such an attic, a reinforced concrete belt must be poured on the load-bearing walls. The only place where this belt is not needed in principle is on wooden and frame houses.

Important points of construction

Illustrations	Recommendations
	Ventilated roof. Regardless of the type of roof, the structure must be insulated, and most importantly ventilated. The instructions are almost the same everywhere: A wind-waterproof membrane is attached to the rafters; From above, it is fixed with bars of a counter-lattice 50x50 mm; A roofing crate is stuffed onto the counter-lattice; Roofing material is attached to the roofing crate; From below, between the rafters, mineral wool insulation boards are laid; A vapor barrier is attached to the thermal insulation and then the attic is finished.
	rafters. For the rafter system, a beam of 50x150 mm or 50x200 mm is used, you cannot take less, since insulation is laid between the rafters.
	insulation. The thickness of the insulation should be at least 150 mm, and you need to take not soft cotton mats, but high-density slabs. Styrofoam and extruded polystyrene foam can be used, but you will have to take care of additional ventilation.
	Balcony. In my opinion, an attic balcony is a useless thing, it occupies a usable area, and it is rarely used. The photo shows a balcony transformed from skylights.This design is very convenient, however, the price of these skylights is quite high.
	roofing material. In terms of price / quality ratio, shingles are most suitable for the attic. The fact is that this material has good sound insulation, and this is important for a living space;
	Ceramic tiles can be considered almost ideal, but they are expensive;
	A metal sheet, meaning metal tiles, corrugated board and seam roofing, are good for everyone, only they are very noisy.
	Ceiling height. Even if the room has broken walls, the ceiling height should not be less than 2.2 m, otherwise it will be uncomfortable to be in such a room.
	Do I need a flat ceiling. In my opinion, making a flat ceiling in the attic is not worth it. It is much more effective to sheathe sloping rafters to the ridge with some kind of finishing material, for example, wood. With this approach, there will be more air, volume will be honored even in a small room.

Five real layouts to choose from

The layout of the attic space is interesting, the beauty here is that there are no load-bearing partitions in the attic space, often everything is made of drywall, so you can use any options, the flight of creative thought is practically unlimited.

In whatever house, and no matter what materials the attic floor project is developed, there must be a bathroom, without it it's just a warm attic and it will be extremely uncomfortable to live in it.

Layout number 1. Attic for 3 rooms

• On the first floor we have a large living room, a fairly spacious kitchen, a full bathroom and a medium-sized hall;
• Attic floor adapted exclusively for relaxation, there is a bathroom and 3 rooms of approximately equal size, each of which can be both a bedroom and an office.

Layout number 2. Option for a country house

• Interesting solution of the first floor, instead of several tiny rooms, more than half of the plan was made by a kitchen-studio, combined with a living room. To the right of the entrance is a staircase to the second floor, and to the left is a relatively spacious bathroom. The project even provides for a small office near the kitchen;
• Useful area of ​​the attic floor used to the maximum, it is divided into 3 bedrooms, but there is clearly not enough bathroom, because going down the stairs to the bathroom at night is not only inconvenient, but also dangerous, although this option may be acceptable for a summer residence.

Layout number 3. House for a family with 2 children

On the ground floor there is a spacious living room, a fairly spacious hall and an office, in addition there is a small vestibule, which is good for a cold climate. The only serious mistake can be considered a tiny kitchen, more than 2 people will not be able to eat in it at the same time.

In the attic there are 2 children's rooms and a parent's bedroom. From the auxiliary premises there is a full-fledged combined bathroom and a small storage room.

There is one more flaw in this layout: it is better to place bathrooms one above the other, otherwise you will have to do additional pipe wiring.

Layout No. 4. House 9x9m

This ground floor layout includes a main entrance with a small hallway and 2 auxiliary entrances from the back of the building. The 11 m² kitchen is well suited for a family of 4.In addition, there is an office, a storage room and a combined bathroom.

On the second floor there are 3 bedrooms and a spacious bathroom. The bathroom doors that open outward are not very convenient, since they block half the passage of the stairs, but if you put a sliding door model, the problem will be removed.

Layout No. 5. Budget house for 5 people 8.4x10.7 m

Relatively small and at the same time comfortable house. On the ground floor there is a large living room combined with a kitchen, a spacious office and a comfortable bathroom. There was even a place for a boiler room and a pantry, plus 2 entrances are provided.

On the second floor we have 4 bedrooms, a large bathroom and a spacious patch in front of the stairs. There are 2 balconies above the entrance doors, but they are rather for beauty, in practice, the mansard roofs of private houses with balconies do not carry a functional load, these balconies are used very rarely.

Conclusion

I hope that the roof projects of private houses with an attic presented above and the tips for implementing these projects will be of good help to you in choosing the right model for you. If you have any questions, write them in the comments, I will try to help.

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