Windows, shutters, porch railings, and siding are critical elements that can destroy curb-appeal if not done right.
Thankfully, you have read about them in detail on this website and know what to do, and more importantly, what not to do.
If you haven’t, then you better get busy reading!
With all this however, there is one more very important home design mistake that few would even think about.
The design of the roof eaves on a house is one of the top culprits that is critical to successful curb appeal.
Unfortunately, this is an area where bad design is often overlooked.
This problem does not originate in the design of a historic home, but is seen in newer construction and older homes that have silently fallen victim to what some people (bad people) call “home improvements”.
Yes, as a good preservationist you may not be aware that your roof eaves have been altered.
Boxed eaves with modillions. Modillions give a decorative look of rafters on an eave that would look too plain without them. Never accent them.
First, I need to train your eyes for you to recognize what the correct way is before showing you the mistakes that are made. Please bear with me as I guide you through a long introduction using baby steps before addressing the problem to avoid confusion.
Roof Types.
The type of eave is also dependent on the type of roof. There are four basic roof types. The most popular are the gabled roof, hipped roof, gambrel roof, and mansard roof. Here we will focus on the gabled roof for this is the roof type that contractors usually ruin.
Types of Roof Eaves.
Roof Eaves provide a necessary visual separation from the wall of the house and transition to the roof. The eaves define the style of architecture while protecting its siding and foundation. The wider a roof’s overhang, the further rain is thrown away from the house, protecting your home. Wider eaves are seen on houses in warmer climates to keep the building cooler. Narrower eaves in the north to allow the sun to warm the house.
The design and construction of the eaves can be a bit complicated so we will try to be basic and show you key points of what you need to know for successful curb-appeal. Once understood, the fine details and how to construct this design can be found in the book Get Your House Right.
There are basically four types of roof eaves we will be focusing on here. To make it easier we will separate them into two different “shapes”.
Horizontal – the bottom of the eaves are horizontal.
- Boxed eaves.
- Pork Chop eaves (BAD).
Angled – The bottom of the eaves are angled.
- Open eaves.
- Closed eaves.
The eave trim begins at the top of the roof and at the end there is an eave return when the eave turns inward. This return is necessary for a boxed in eave.
The trim comes down and ends. The underside of the eave can be either open or closed in for a more finished look. This type of eave is frequently disfigured by contractors.
Roof Eave Types Based on Architectural Style
So as you learned there are two basic eave shape categories -Boxed and Angled. The more formal boxed eaves were used on buildings during Colonial times. The Angled – closed eave style was around from the 1840’s. Open eaves became especially fashionable at the end of the 19th century with the Arts & Crafts movement. The open eaves during this time became a character defining feature with exposed rafters and beams celebrating the structure’s natural materials and construction techniques. Think of Craftsman-Bungalows.
What Are Boxed Eaves?
Boxed eaves (horizontal) usually have a more formal or decorative appearance due to the design and the embellishments that can be added with a boxed eave.
Dental molding and decorative brackets are common.
Boxed eaves are almost always used on Colonial period homes, Greek Revival, Classical Revival, Cape Cod, Colonial Revival homes, and Midcentury Modern homes.
Boxed eaves will have an “eave-return” at the gable side of the house.
The architecture of boxed-eave-returns are based on the Classical Orders.
Building eave-returns is a lost art that requires considerable skill.
Most homeowners and builders would not be able to tell the good from the bad – but you will.
Boxed eave with a nice eave-return. The eave-return creates a pleasing flow of the trim on the house. Boxed eaves appear more sophisticated.
The architecture of boxed-eaves require eave-returns. Eave-returns have a purpose. The eave-return allows the trim to extend from the gable and around the house in a graceful way. This architecture creates a finished look by neatly capping the ends of the eaves. The visual appeal provides a classic and sophisticated appearance.
Without an eave-return there would be a disconnect between the trim on the rake of the roof and the fascia board on the eave. (Glossary to follow.)
Italianate with boxed eaves in need of better paint colors.
Federal style building with decorative boxed eaves.
Classical Revival home with boxed eaves. Since this house is side gabled, only that on the front is shown here.
Look close. Eaves are boxed in. Dental molding is sometimes used for a more elaborate cornice. Notice the eave return on the dormer’s front facing gable.
Boxed eaves. Eave return always found at the front of any gabled roof with boxed eaves.
Eaves are boxed. Frieze board below the eaves creates a stronger and more decorative look.
Boxed eaves with built in gutters and dental trim. (1797 Cranbury NJ)
Victorian with boxed eaves. Here the eave return extends across separating the gable from the rest of the house. It also extends outward just a bit creating a Pent Roof.
Again, notice how the eave-returns play a crucial role in gracefully extending the fascia board trim from the gable and around the house, providing a smooth transition at the roofline.
Open Eaves Versus Closed Eaves.
Open and Closed eaves (Angled) are for the most part the same. Open eaves are always used in Craftsman architecture. Construction begins with open eaves and then for a more finished look, the underside of the eaves are enclosed.
Open eaves show rafter tails and purlins. A must for all Craftsman – Bungalows.
A – Rafter
B – Purlin
Some homes may have open eaves as above but also have a narrow fascia board but still allowing the rafter tail ends and bottoms to be seen.
Attaching gutters to a house with open eaves would destroy the character defining features of a Craftsman style home. To add gutters a fascia board would have to be added that would cover up the rafter tails. These homes did NOT always have gutters.
If they did it would be the very popular Yankee Gutters . These simple gutters add a nice touch to curb appeal.
A closed eave is merely a more finished open eave.
C – Soffit
D– Roof Rake
E – Fascia board – frequently covered over with gutters.
F – Corner trim is placed where the soffit meets the body of the house for a more finished look.
G – An additional piece of decorative trim. While noticeably absent on new homes, this trim must be attached directly under the roof shingles to both the rake and the fascia board.
The addition of modern Gutters to the fascia board will hide this trim. At the rake, roof flashing added by an over zealous roofer will cover this important trim.
So remember that both modern “K” style gutters and roof flashing will have a real negative effect on a home with open or closed eaves.
Simple basic terms you should know:
- Gable – a gable is the end part of a roof that appears like a triangle.
- Roof Eaves – The part of the roof that projects beyond the exterior wall; usually the lower edge of a sloped roof.
- Roof rake (D) – the starting edge/rafter on a gabled roof. Rake eave – (gable eave) a projection or overhang on the gable compared to roof eaves that are on the horizontal base of the roof. Not as deep as roof eave.
- Rafter tail (A) – the end part of the rafter that overhangs the wall of the house at the eaves.
- Purlin (B) – beams that run perpendicular to the rafters providing additional support.
- Fascia board (E) – a flat board that is nailed across and covering the lower ends of the roof rafters. A gutter is sometimes attached to it. Similar to a roof rake but instead of being an angled on the gable end, the fascia is horizontal at the base of the roof.
- Entablature – on a Classical building, this is the horizontal portion that site beneath the roof. There are three major components, architrave, frieze, and cornice.
- Soffit (C) – Soffit is the wood that covers the underside of the eave overhang, beneath the rafters. Soffits offer a finished look to the underside of the eave in certain styles of architecture, which has a major impact on the overall look of the structure.
Houses with Open & Closed Eaves
Gothic Revival homes have closed eaves. Houses designed to be less formal such as Craftsman homes will always have open eaves, rarely closed eaves and never Boxed eaves. Victorians will have boxed, open or closed eaves. Tudor homes will have closed, maybe boxed eaves. Some Colonial Revivals will have open, eaves but usually boxed. Some homes will have closed eaves at the roof and boxed eaves on the porch. Open or closed eaves are also frequently seen on older garages too.
Victorian with OPEN eaves. Rafter tails and purlins are visible. The roof rake is ornate.
This Victorian has CLOSED eaves with decorative brackets.
Open eaves. Not a great example but I just wanted to show you a great looking house with little pink flamingos within the gable decoration.
1920’s Colonial Revivals seldom have open eaves. Rafter tails, a most important feature are visible and not hidden under cheap gutters.
Rafter tails before vinyl siding. I was told that the homeowner did this before selling their house. The new owner added the tacky plants. I did recover a 1912 baby stroller out of the seller’s trash. My dog loves riding in it.
Unlike the bad homeowner above, this homeowner removed their artificial siding and look how great the open eaves look on this 1924 Bungalow. Good job!!
Pork Chop Eaves Are Bad!
We now finally get to the main purpose of the entire article by adding another type of eave that you are all too accustomed to seeing – Pork-chop eaves. Pork chop eaves are the crown jewel of cheap tract house construction.
This trend began on homes constructed after WWII when houses became smaller, more simple, and less expensive. Today older homes originally built with and designed to have OPEN or CLOSED eaves are being disfigured as they fall victim to incompetent carpenters. These carpenters change the original design of the eaves to make their job easier.
Squaring-off or Boxing-in an angled eave does not make it a Boxed-Eave design. As stated earlier, boxed eaves require an eave-return and follow the classical orders of architecture for a more formal building. Attempting to box in an angled eave will result in a very bland appearance cheapening the architecture.
Eaves are closed and soffit is angled correctly.
Open and Closed eaves are boxed in to make it easy for the contractor.
This is one way you can test your contractor and see if you should send them away!
Builders today work on autopilot. Their work is off-the-rack and they implement the same fix for everyone. They have no reason to think. The pork-chop eave is mostly built when a negligent homeowner allows their roof to leak or gutters to clog up which damages the soffit and eaves. This also happens when artificial siding is installed. It’s much easier to make a repair or install vinyl siding when working on horizontal wood instead of angled.
One contractor told a client of mine that he has been working on houses for 25 years and no-one ever told him they didn’t want pork-chop eaves. Really though I’m sure he never asked since he probably didn’t know better. Additionally, I’m sure most homeowners wouldn’t know better and if they did they were probably told that this is the way they do it now. Saying it would be very expensive also scares people.
You now see pork-chop eaves in new construction. This is probably because architects and builders are accustomed to seeing bad design making it normalized if not just a cheaper easier way to build.
Pork-chop eaves are created by boxing in open or closed eaves. These eaves were never designed to be boxed in. Instead of making a repair with wood, this fix is the cheap way to fix the problem and advertises the incompetence of the builder. Adding vinyl siding also results in pork-chop eaves.
The awful color placement shows off the mistakes.
Just awful! Also notice the roof flashing overlapping the trim that was removed. The gutters do not attach to the angled fascia correctly. The good part is that you can see the individual pieces of wood that make up the construction of this bad design.
1920’s Sears Catalog “Winona” has open eaves and exposed rafter tails.
No longer a Bungalow. Pork-chop eaves now cover up character defining features of what was once a Bungalow.
Above: a shameful contractor and homeowner disfigured what was once a Bungalow. It is now just a small boxy house with Pork-chop eaves. The colorized sears catalog photo also shows gutters being used. This can sometimes although rarely be done if the gutter is mounted high enough to allow the gutter to rest on the rafter tails.
Vinyl is being removed. Notice the open eave being uncovered.
Eave-Return Cap
Never install giant McMansion style eave caps!
The overarticulation of the eave-return cap is a result of McMansion design. The purpose is to shed a very small amount of water. It should never ever match the main roof slope of the house. These caps are designed to call as much attention as they can to the eave-return cap. Instead, this cap should NEVER be seen!
A correct eave-return cap should be nothing more than a piece of flashing, no seams from one end to the other.
On another note, the eave-return is merely a gutter. The gutter design does not match or relate to the gable rake. Go back to the eave-return examples to see how it should be done. Please ignore the fake shutters, and cheap windows.
This mistake became the norm and then that became the focal point.
The pork chop eave on the left was rendered to show a small piece of flashing replacing the huge architecturally WRONG eave cap.
1960 Ranch house has boxed in eaves with eave return. Notice the roof shingle on the return is not a focal point.
Fixing a Disfigured Bungalow.
FIXING the Gable End Returns. How not to highlight historic ignorance.
1909 Makeover Removing Pork-chop Eaves.
See the transformation from Pork-chop eaves back to open eaves.
An Ugly House Gets Transformed
In this video see how the eaves are converted to boxed eaves which really make a huge improvement.
There are two articles you really need to be familiar with before leaving this page. They are really a Part 2 and Part 3 to this article. Sorry to drag this on but one goes hand-in-hand with the other.
Read about the types of gutters and their effect on eave design.
Read about roof flashing to avoid your eaves and trim from being covered up.
Next Steps:
So I hope I accomplished my goal of training your eyes to recognize the good from the bad eaves. Now you are done but if you want more specifics the following links will help you.
Articles to search for and read:
- Designing the Right Roof Rake
- Gable End Eave Design
- Elegant Eaves for a Truss Roof
- Cornice Construction
Oh goodness! This article came at the perfect timing!!! 2 months ago we moved into my grandparents house and we are doing repairs and figuring out the house. It was built in 1901 with significant alterations in the 1930s. Now I understand our eaves are boxed eaves with modillions! I can’t wait until we have our new roof and gutters and then have the woodwork repaired. Thank you for the book recommendations.