Help with dormer design

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

We're finishing the bonus room above our garage and are considering adding a dormer to let in more light and increase head room. Our contractor strongly prefers the aesthetics of a gable dormer to a shed in our case and says we have room for a 10 ft long dormer on our roofline.

I'm not great at visualizing stuff, and a 3D rendering isn't part of our contractor's process. She's a draw-it-out-on-graph-paper person, which is part of what makes her so affordable. But it means I'm having trouble figuring out where on our attic roofline to put the dormer, and deciding whether I prefer a gable or a shed roof. I just can't picture what it will look like from the outside.

Our attic is 23 ft long from the blue line --> to the edge of the side of the house. We could pop up a 10 ft dormer anywhere in that stretch of roof. I'd love input on the location that would look best, and votes for shed vs. gable. If someone's handy with mockups, I'd appreciate any help I can get.

Front of our house in case it helps:

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Comments (8)

PRO
PPF.
5 years ago
Where is the ceiling in the garage/floor of the bonus room? About where the white trim is on the front?
H Cole
Original Author
5 years ago
Yep, exactly.
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PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
5 years ago
IMO a shed dormer would be my choice but you need to have some windows below the doremer into the garage to balance out the shed. Use 3 windows in th shed and the same below for the garage.
H Cole
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Thanks Patricia, I totally agree garage windows would really help things look more balanced. Unfortunately I have slatwall hanging storage on that interior wall of the garage and I'm not up for dismantling and rearranging all that to make room for windows right now. So I think I need to accept a windowless garage for now. I think 3 windows is a good suggestion for the dormer!
houssaon
5 years ago
I don't know for sure, but it seems a shed dormer is a less expensive build.
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suezbell
5 years ago
Have you discussed just adding another full gable on one or both sides of the garage with the ridge of the side gables the same height as the current center ridge of the garage?

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/208854501455431094/
H Cole
Original Author
5 years ago
Yeah, I think conventional wisdom seems to be sheds are more economical and are able to be run longer than gables. So if we went with a shed, we could conceivably go longer than 10 ft to gain extra space/light.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
5 years ago
IMO this is the perfect time to redo the shelving system in the garage and do this right