Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 18, 2015 8:43 pm We are on the cusp of paying for tender with a builder in NSW, for a new house in the new development at Edmondson Park. Our block is narrow at the front, requiring the wall up one side to have quite a few steps in it. We have been told the roof having to accommodate this with lots of peaks & troughs and the different widths makes the roof quite expensive. I have asked about making the wall diagonal instead of stepped, or to simply make the roof straight on the diagonal instead of stepped in an effort to make it cheaper. I have been told that the diagonal wall, whilst it looks simpler, is actually more complicated and more expensive. Nothing was said about just the roof being diagonal with the walls still stepping. Rough sketch Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ My question is this: Is building the roof following the green line in the picture going to be more expensive than matching the red house line? Is there any way to make this cheaper, or is it just how it is? I feel like every different option I ask about is getting answered in a way that basically means either they can't be bothered quoting it, or don't want to do anything differently to how they normally do it. Thanks Re: Expensive roof- how to make cheaper / am I being BSed to 2Nov 19, 2015 2:54 pm There's a reason you don't see irregular shaped roofs often, and that's because they are complex to design and build. Every truss and span is different, you end up with sloping ridge or sloping gutters, and there's lots of cutting angles on tiles or sheets. Then there's extra complexity joining angled walls, but I don't think squaring up the walls would make a lot of difference, as you still need to support that shaped roof. However, the hips and valleys of the stepped roof also have issues. Valleys tend to collect leaves and are a likely place for leaks, so it's better to avoid too many of those too. Another thing to watch in the comparison is the direction the walls face. For example, having north walls and west walls would be better than having a diagonal north-west wall. My first thought would be to try to reduce the number of steps, and use the triangular space as an outdoor area. Another idea would be to have the diagonal roof, but to use a skillion roof, with the gutter along the left side in the picture. You'd then have no hips or valleys, and save money on the simpler sheeting, but from most builders it will still cost more than a basic rectangular roof. You really have to work within what your builder is happy with though, or it will end expensive. Re: Expensive roof- how to make cheaper / am I being BSed to 3Nov 19, 2015 4:38 pm Thanks that's good info! North is between 2 and 3 o'clock on this picture. Re: Expensive roof- how to make cheaper / am I being BSed to 4Nov 21, 2015 4:50 pm Short answer - yes You have more area to build My garage door has started playing up recently. Sometimes (and getting more frequent) when I press the button to open it, it wont. The motor is an ATA GD0-6V3. Red and… 0 2664 Being an owner builder is no walk in the park. It’s a challenging endeavour that requires dedication and hard… 0 9993 Not sure who you're building with, but I moved in recently to a 11month scheduled, 8 month actual build on the South coast/Illawarra NSW 3 5911 |