I always wanted to know why someone would want a parapet roof as opposed to a slanted roof. At least for me, a slanted roof drains water off your roof a lot more efficiently than a parapet roof. You won't have it pooling in the middle. If you want the water to drain off, you'll have to build some elaborate system to do so. Snow could also be a problem adding weight to your roof and risk it caving in. None of this will be a problem with a slanted roof. The water and/or snow will just drain or slide off the sides.
I know that if you have a flat roof anywhere within your house, you pay more insurance.. I understand this is because flat roofs, (rooves?) fail more readily than sloped. They are more prone to frost and water damage for a start..
I'd venture to say sloped look better too.
My house is over 100 years old and the sloped part is in-keeping with the period.
When I built my house, I coulda put up any roof style available. I chose a sloped roof as found on most homes. It is 'walkable', that is you can walk on it without too much fear of sliding off! I figured that when the time comes to replace the shingles, I can do it myself.
It's for snow. The higher in elevation, the steeper the roof. Snow may look nice and fluffy, but its actually quite heavy (try shoveling it sometime). A steep roof allows the snow to slide off via gravity (still need to shovel it off if it gets over 4 feet deep or has a high water content). Snow on a flat roof builds up until the weight collapses the roof. Places that rarely see snow have flat roofs.
Where I live, the greatest advantage is to keep 4-10+ feet of snow from building up and collapsing the structure. Snow & Ice buildup is no joke and a flat roof on a home where there is significant snowfall is stupid AF. There has to be a slant or peak
If more than 30% of a house has a flat roof, insurance becomes an issue. Flat roofs have more leak problems but they are cheaper to build. Obviously water will drain more efficiently on a pitched roof. Flat roofs are better as far as wind damage. Here where I live the preferred roof for wind resistance is the hip roof. That is all I know about roofs. In fact, I just read about the 30% thing.
This post was edited by Thriftymaid at November 4, 2019 11:51 PM MST
A lot depends on the degree of pitch. A steeply pitched roof is pretty much mandatory in areas where heavy snow is common, as a shallower pitch or flat roof doesn't allow the snow to slide off and as Morning Person stated above, the extra weight can compromise the structure. A shallower pitch is adequate for wet weather, flat roofs are both cheaper to build and safer to work on - a factor if you are having a solar system installed, the installers take safety into account when factoring prices.
Kittigate 