Graphical Construction Glossary >> Roofs and roofing. >> dormer window

Dormer window

A vertical window placed in a sloping roof.

Gable dormer

A dormer with a gable roof.

Shed dormer

A dormer with a shed or single pitched roof.

A quick glance at the photographs on this page would be enough to convince anyone of the amazing variety of these architectural features.

Above, two small gable dormers and, at the far end a shed dormer, set in a modern pantile roof. These in a timber framed house the small town of Marken in Holland.

Primarily to add light, ventilation and general amenity to a room, dormer windows have long been a way for architects and designers to express creativity. These arched roof dormers on a public building in Bromley, Kent UK.

This type roof also in Bromley is known as a gambrel roof. The dormers in this case take the form of french windows opening outwards onto a narrow balcony.

A recessed dormer in a fairly modern slate roof.

For the most part dormers add standing head height floor space to a room That is almost aways one of their main features. On rare occasions the designer sets the dormer recessed into the roof like the gable dormer above. The reason for this is to provide a small outside area. They are a lot harder to waterproof, and certainly the effort would hardly have been worth it in the case above.

Note the raked window head. Let's hope that the builder got his setting out right otherwise it would not be able to open fully. It's a worry.

Once again two types of dormers in the one roof. This time in an old pantile roof in Greenwich, UK. Many small dormers like these in the UK seem to use lead as the roofing material.

As you can see here, one of the considerations when designing a dormer is the slope of the roof and the material to cover it. The pantiles on the main roof require at least a 15Deg. roof pitch, no problem, but the dormers have shallower pitches than that so another material is used. In this case lead.

Quite grand stone faced dormers in one of the old Royal Observatory buildings, at Greenwich, UK.

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"What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?
Adam Smith 1723-1790

"When we build, let us think that we build for ever."John Ruskin 1819-1900