~Design
Double Doghouse Dormer
Doghouse dormers merge with a shed dormer for extra space and added visual interest
by Andrew P. DiGiammo
A s an architect and builder on
the New England coastline, I
work a lot in my own interpre-
tation of the shingle style. The tradi-
tion employs a lot of low rooflines,
where the roof springs from the first-
floor wall, and consequently, I often
wind up using various kinds of dor-
mers to create usable space under
those low roofs.
UTILITY WITH FLAIR
One dormer I frequently use is the
“Nantucket dormer” — a sort of hybrid
between a shed dormer and a doghouse
dormer. We call it a Nantucket dormer
because it’s rumored to have been
developed on Nantucket Island, where
it’s a common roof feature on many FIGURE 1. A Nantucket dormer provides the headroom of a shed dormer with visual appeal of
homes. But you can also find this two doghouse dormers. Here, it is used to define one side of an entire house, where a plain
shed dormer would have been too boxy.
dormer style used throughout New
England on old houses.
I like this style because it allows me whole side of the second story of the the other side of the house, or else to
to get the practical utility of a shed home is framed out as a double set of some interior supporting structure like
dormer, for enclosing space, along with hip-roofed dormers joined by a center a bearing beam or wall. Again, we dou-
the visual interest and traditional look shed roof. ble the shed rafters on the ends of the
of doghouse dormers. From the exte- center shed roof.
rior, it looks pretty much like two SIMPLE FRAMING At the elevation where the lines of
closely spaced doghouse dormers. The framing for these dormers can be a the main, steep-pitched house rafters
However, the Nantucket dormer cre- challenge for my field crews. But in and the lower-pitched dormer shed
ates a larger clear space on the inside, principle, it’s fairly simple: We frame rafters cross, we run headers across
defined by the area under the two dog- the dormer opening in the roof by dou- from each doubled shed rafter to its
house roofs combined with the shed bling up the rafters of the main roof counterpart doubled main house rafter.
roof that connects them. system (Figure 2). The outside walls of Those headers are intended to catch the
A typical use for this method is to the doghouse dormers rest on those ends of the doghouse dormer ridge
open out a piece of usable space in a doubled rafters. We frame up the front boards, which we install next. With the
room over a garage. It’s useful wherever wall and side walls of the dormer, then locations of those ridges defined, we
you want to build a large dormer into a we install the center, shed part, of the can then place valley rafters for the
roof but would rather not have a big, dormer roof, running the shed rafters intersection points where the doghouse
clunky-looking shed dormer. I’ve even back to tie into some kind of support — roofs meet the main roof, as well as
used this element on a grander scale, either all the way across the main roof where the doghouse roofs join the cen-
as shown in Figure 1, in which one to mate with the main roof rafters for ter shed roof.
November/December 2007 ~ CoastalContractor 1
~Design
Roof Framing Plan
Scale: 1/4" = 1'-0"
Double 2x10
K.D. spruce
rafters
Double 2x10
K.D. headers New 2x10 K.D.
spruce headers
Double 13/4" x 91/2"
LVL at shed roof pitch
(3.25/12)
2x10 rafters
at 16" o.c.
Double 2x10 K.D. spruce rafters
at main roof pitch (12/12)
FIGURE 2. The trick to framing a
Nantucket dormer is establish-
ing the valleys for the two
doghouse dormers (plan
illustration above). The outside
valleys meet the main roof,
while the inside valleys meet
the lower-pitched shed roof
that joins the two doghouse
dormers. While essentially a
shed dormer in plan, the visual
effect is closer to a pair of
doghouse dormers (left).
Usually I keep the dormer walls I didn’t invent this form of dormer
short, to accommodate the various — it has been around for a long time.
pitches and to keep the dormers from It’s an interesting and useful roof form
visually dominating the roof. To gain that I can add to my bag of tricks, just
sufficient ceiling height in the indoor to keep things lively.
room, I let the ceiling follow the plane
of the rafters. So inside the house, the Architect and builder Andrew P.
cut-up shed-and-doghouse roof planes DiGiammo owns and operates a custom
are revealed, making for some inter- design/build firm based in Assonet,
esting interior spaces. Mass. Photos by the author.
November/December 2007 ~ CoastalContractor 2
