Pointed Roofs But Flat Ceilings - Anybody Know Why ?

[scooterboy]

Is there a specific reason as to why houses generally have pointed roofs but flat

ceilings in the rooms? Maybe it's got something to do with the heat factor - or maybe it's just the easiest and quickest way to finish making a house.

I'm curious, as I'd prefer our rooms to follow the contour of the roof, so the ceilings

have an inverted V appearance - and look rather like attic rooms, if you know what I mean.

It would give a lot more air space and maybe I wouldn't feel like I'm sleeping in a <deleted>' over-sized coffin!

At the moment I'm just interested in the general reason itself - ain't gonna change the ceilings in the rooms in any way - yet! Oh - I'm talking about a one-storey house (bungalow), if that makes any difference.

[Jet Gorgon]

Pointed roofs so the rain runs off. Ceiling added to create attic space for lizards and other vermin, so they don't poo on you while you are sleeping.

[londonthai]

there are different styles around the country - but generally only traditional thai teak wood houses have pointed roofs. Flat ceilings in those houses are a later addition to allow air con (less space to cool).

originally those houses have vents on both sides of the house so the heat can escape. It can work OK if there is wind - but otherwise the room will be pretty hot. Nowdays thais even stopped putting those vents instead they installed aircons or in the villages just fans.

Even if you will insulate under the roof you still need flat and (possibly insulated) ceiling to safe money on air con bill

Edited January 25, 2007 by londonthai

[astral]

In countries where they have snow the roof slope is greater, to encourage the snow to slide off.

[chownah]

An easy way to build a roof is to put pairs of rafters up and then to tie their bottom ends together with a joist to keep the rafters from pushing the walls out. With this type of construction if you remove the ties (joists) then the roof acts like a wedge and can push the top of the walls out causing collapse. With this type of construction if you didn't make a ceiling then you would have all those joists just hanging out in space so its easy to just cover them on the underside and voila you have a ceiling....and with a little bit more work you can put a floor above and turn otherwise unusable space into living space...or storage space.

This is of course not the only way to build a roof but it is a common way and I believe this is why the ceililng is such a common element in interior home design.

Chownah

[Swelters]

You won't incur much in the way of heat problems if you provide good insulation under the pitched roof (say R=10 American units). But if you find yourself looking up at the underside of the uninsulated cement roofing tile be prepared to have a radiant temperature glowing down on your head of about 50 deg C. Air conditioning wont help you here whatever the capacity or however cold the air because radiant heat has an effect equal to air temperature.. A ceiling won't completely solve the problem either if there is no insulation or high ventilation pf the space above.

More on this at:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/blog/swelter....php?&st=15

.

[Rimmer]

In countries where they have snow the roof slope is greater, to encourage the snow to slide off.

Not quite right! If you look at Austrian and Swiss houses the roofs are shallow to keep the snow on the roof. This serves to insulate the roof from the cold and help keep heat in. Houses are built with roof fences to keep snow on the roof.