What’s Hanging Over Your Head Can Make a Huge Impact

Have you ever looked up and noticed how much your roof “sticks out” beyond the exterior wall of your house? Probably not. And if you have noticed, we’re willing to bet you haven’t thought about how hugely important this little piece of design can be.

A roof overhang is more aesthetically pleasing – it gives the house more character and increases the value of the house. A better built home adds more curb appeal, and that increases the resale value.

Here’s the before picture, the house without a roof overhang.

It’s good building practice to have your roof go further out than the edge of your wall by at least 9 inches, but 12 or more is better. This Roof Overhang protects the walls and windows of the outside of your house from damaging water issues.

Without that overhang, water can come into your house, around your windows. The water may come in at the top of the wall if there’s no overhang. When a roof lays flush with the wall, if your gutters get backed up, there is no protection.

Without a proper roof overhang, water creeps inside the walls or inside the house. Water inside your walls spells a heap of trouble, because it will cause mold. Mold isn’t always visible on the sheet rock, but hopefully you can sense its odor. However, there have been cases where the mold went undetected – and you don’t know you have this problem until you become ill and don’t know why you feel sick.

If your house doesn’t currently have a roof overhang, we can fix this issue. We design a way to provide a larger overhang that goes well with the design of the house. Basically, we extend the roof. If your roof shingles are very old, you may need a new roof; or if your roof is half-way through its life expectancy (15 of 30 years), we may extend the roof while trying to match the shingles you have; but the older the shingles, the more difficult it will be to match the existing style and color. We can get it close or you can decide to proceed and have them all replaced.

Recently, we worked on an exterior facelift to a house: the project included new siding, windows, trim and added a new front entry portico. The homeowner was not planning to change the roof, as he had recently re-shingled the whole roof.

While it was not in his original requests, we presented a plan to create the overhang.

It’s easy to overlook the importance of a roof overhang, so we asked them to drive around the neighborhood and look at other houses.

They realized the houses they liked all had roof overhangs.

Even though this additional work increased their budget, the homeowners came to the decision that they wanted to increase the value and curb appeal of their house. And that’s just what we did – at the end of the project, they thanked us for pointing it out. They sincerely felt that it was one of the best things they changed even though it was not originally in their plans.

Here at Zimmerman Architects, we feel it’s our job to point out areas of design that can significantly change the value or the experience of living in your home. We know that most often you aren’t aware of the details that we see, and what makes a house “look good”.  It’s our job to make you aware of design choices that can make you fall in love with your house. In the end, it’s always your decision on what to include, and we respect your decision.

Your surroundings can totally affect your life,
your spirit, your emotional well being!

Do you have transformational dreams for your house and
simply can’t “see it happening?”
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