A hip roof is a roof that slopes down to the walls on every side. There are no flat, triangle-shaped end walls. The outside corners where two slopes meet are called hips, which gives the roof its name.
Parts of a hip roof
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Ridge | The level peak at the top. On a square house it shrinks to a single point. |
| Hip | The sloped outside corner where two roof planes meet |
| Hip rafter | The diagonal rafter under each hip, from the building corner to the ridge |
| Common rafter | Full-length rafters from the wall to the ridge |
| Jack rafter | Shorter rafters from the wall up to a hip rafter |
| Eave | The level bottom edge, which runs around all four sides |
A framing fact that surprises many people: a hip rafter climbs the same height as the common rafters but over a longer diagonal run. For every 12 inches of common run, the hip covers about 17 inches of run (the diagonal of a 12 × 12 square). That is why framers write hip pitch as “6/17” on a 6/12 roof.
Types of hip roof
- Simple hip: two trapezoid sides and two triangle ends on a rectangular house. The most common type.
- Pyramid hip: four equal triangles on a square plan, meeting at a point. Common on garages and pavilions.
- Cross hip: two hip roofs meeting at a right angle on an L or T-shaped house, joined by valleys.
- Dutch hip (Dutch gable): a hip roof with a small gable near the top for ventilation and light.
- Half hip (jerkinhead): a gable roof with the top of each gable clipped back into a small hip.
- Hip and valley: any hip roof with wings, which adds valleys where roof planes meet inside corners.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Handles high winds well, because no flat end wall catches the wind
- Eaves on every side shade walls and windows and throw rain away from the foundation
- Self-bracing shape that resists racking
- Lower, more compact look
Cons
- More complex framing than a gable roof
- More cutting waste and more hip and ridge cap shingles
- Less attic space and a short ridge for ridge vents
- Valleys on cross-hip roofs add leak points if poorly flashed
How to measure a hip roof for shingles
The key rule: if every side has the same pitch, a hip roof’s area equals the footprint (with overhang) times the pitch multiplier. You do not need to measure each triangle and trapezoid.
Example: 40 × 30 ft house, 12 inch overhang, 6/12 pitch.
- Footprint: 42 × 32 = 1,344 sq ft
- Roof area: 1,344 × 1.118 = 1,503 sq ft
- With 15% waste: 17.28 squares, which is 52 bundles
- Hip and ridge: 10 ft ridge + four 24 ft hips = 106 ft of cap
Open this roof in the calculator with the hip preset. For roofs with different pitches on different sides, see the step-by-step method in how to calculate hip roof area.
Hip roof vs gable roof
On the same house, both roofs have the same surface area. The hip roof costs more but usually performs better in wind. The full comparison, with numbers, is in hip roof vs gable roof.