Is there a scale for dormers in reference to either building size or roof size? I see so many that look awesome and others that just look like they were afterthoughts…any ideas?
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"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
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You want the secrets of the masters without making the grueling trek to the mountaintop?
Without fasting in the shade of a spruce tree communing with it's sap?
Without the cranial adjustments recieved from hitting your noggin on one too many low beams?
Without the pennance of pouring footers in six inches of mud?
Go young Grasshoppah and study the ways of the WASP!
Wasp the insect? Wasp the white anglo saxon protestant? Or is this a new acronym that I need to know about?
Any way, mdantique, I know what you mean. We examine every piece of new construction that we pass. My amazing husband is able to use both sides of his brain. I'll often say, "there's something not right with that house, it jars me. What is it?". He'll glance and quickly give me the answer. Windows, dormers out of scale, pitch not right, whatever. He amazes me. Think it's a gift from the artistic side.
Andy's idea is a good one. And his suggestion to ask permission is good too. Wouldn't want to be picked up as a burglar casing the joint.
Latest fad around here is the "Northern New Mexico" look. Pitched metal roofs on small adobes, L or U shaped, often only one room deep. Scale is elegant and remind me of the little houses of the Southeast. But the builders around here erect huge McMansions, throw up a metal roof and a few awful dormers and declare them after the style. Man, are they ugly.
Shelley in NM
Or you can do as I did,
Make a scale model and fiddle with it untill you like the proportions, then check the window literature to see what's available and cost effective. then refiddle untill you are happy with both answers.
To me it's just silly to do something all custom when with a few more moments thought there is a reasonable solution that won't break the bank.
ooh, even better. Wish I'd thought of that.
Shelley in NM
Your last paragraph is so true. I wish more people would understand that. My life and theirs would be easier. Of course that is why I call myself a plumbing sales consultant... I help them figure this stuff out.
Sheeshh... can you believe I am agreeing with Frenchy? LOL
Maybe I will grow up here yet huh?
The white anglo saxon protestant comes from puritan background. Part of that heritage in New England involves hard work. The Calvinist doctrine implies strongly that God's blessings devolve to those who will sacrifice themselves to earn them. (I'm not of that faith) The work ethic that doctrine has engendered has it's influencers here still.
The Wasp Insect is a free roving ranger and hard worker but also a little bit of a scavenger/pirate.
All of this means that I was implying similar to what has been said by others. You need to study other houses ala Andy and practice in situ as per frenchy. proportions of 3/5/8 are good but the actual application of them to an unknown house is so full of variables that it would take all night just to type the introduction. I'm here for fun, not to do anybody elses work. And I was feeling frivolous because the beer was good last night.
Excellence is its own reward!
Thanks for the reply guys and gals. Obviously alot of blueprints have the dimensions for each house and must be built that way, but some are just not "proportionally" not quite right. Using a drafting program you can fiddle quite a bit, but I guess a true scale is not universal (for dog-house dormers, which my question applied to). I thought there may be.....
Well, you could sit out in front of the houses whose dormers you like and estimate the proportions by holding a ruler between your eyes and the house. As long as you keep the ruler a consistent distance from you eyes, and your eyes a consistent distance from the house, you should be able to determine height to width ratios you find pleasing.
Bear in mind that if you stay on the street or the sidewalk, there is nothing illegal about this activity. It does, however, have the potential to be socially awkward. I've found that when I want to shoot a photo of a particular house for the magazine, knocking on the door first and dropping off a business card makes the owners feel a lot less hinky. You might try a similar tack.
I agree. People are flattered when you tell them their house has been picked for the Right side of a Right/Wrong comparison.
Or just do it from the car. Then it becomes socially awkward for them to violate your personal by approaching your car.
Edited 6/11/2002 9:30:53 AM ET by Uncle Dunc
A while back there was an article on cupolas and the proportions that worked. Maybe Andy can pull the article. If memory serves the conclusion was that a cupola narrower than one tenth the ridge line was too small but wider than one sixth the ridge was too big. My gut feeling is that the same proportions work on gable (dog house) dormers. Time to dust off the old issues.
I honestly can't say whether there is a mathematical proportion or scale that applies...I suppose there may be. But the first question is, what kind of dormer, in what style, on what kind of house. If you take for instance, a gable dormer on a typical Pennsylvania farmhouse from the late 1700's to early 1800's, you can arrive at the size pretty easily by looking at the size of the dormer window with respect to the other windows on the house, and then look at how they were constructed. Oftentimes the dormer windows were the same size, or the same width but shorter, with fairly narrow sides, just enough to accommodate the cheek wall of the dormer. So if you were copying this, the width of the dormer might be the R.O. of the window, plus a few inches for trim, plus the thickness of a 2x4 cheekwall.
Anyway, the bottom line is...it depends on the house.
built lots of these, I don't know why, but 99% had a window with a ro width of 38" and outside dimensions 48".no turn left unstoned
Jezz, you may have hit something there. My windows do have a ro. of 38 (and an 1/8) and the width of 48 & that's after a lot of fiddleing.
The window height is another matter though, I had to go to 65 inches high since the roof is so steep which exposes a lot of shingles The overall height of the roof with it's 27/12 pitch is 20 feet. Evan at that I could have gone taller if they were available. It is kinda silly in my case since only the bottom row of panes can be looked out unless you're on a ladder or well over 7 feet tall.
Edited 6/12/2002 11:38:23 AM ET by frenchy