My opinion only & I am not an architect or other professional... if the changes you want to make do not add usable living space it is wasted money. I think your home is beautiful as is.

Thank you! Unfortunately, none of the above (beautiful) pictures are our home. We have a sunroom that is decaying because it was a sloped wall and the original construction was not good for flashing/etc. - so we will definitely have to tear it down - now we are just looking into best design options! :-)

I put two additions on my hip roof. Taking pink with red shutter home in first pic as the example. To add a room where curved window is,continue roof over window closest to main house up until it intresects the hip. Roof line closest to chimney just countiues out past front wall. A 1x6 was nailed over decking where rafter tails rest on old roof. I terminated roof over both my additions as cables which improved visual lines of house. It look's to have all been built at same time as house. Gables were used on first two houses above to improve appearance. I do not like multiple pitches on a house.

I don't see how anyone can help you if they haven't seen your house.

The first pic looks like 9/12; the second one 10/12, the old house maybe 6 3/4 in 12.

I think op confused terms relating to roof type,hip,shed,gable with pitch,6/12,10/12 ect but is simply asking how best to add a room without creating roof leaks often associated with room additions. Piticularly shed starting at dripline of exist roof apposed to going back up and over existing roof to start new roof. Existing construction might complicate an addition but it's usually possibible without having it leak. JDS is correct,pictures of actual house would be of great help in getting suggestions.

Thank you for your comments - I appreciate it. My first post was not clear enough. I can't post a picture of the house (WWIII will apparently break out) but I did a quick rendition in ppt to show you what we are working with). My question is: when we do our remodel of this room (sun room and attached wood room, both shown below), what is the benefit of the various types of roofing options? Above the main house roof line/at the same level/under it. klem1 seemed to clarified this better. We do have a chimney and a window we are working with and want it to work well together.

Thanks for any thoughts - I'm thoroughly unsure.

Form a strictly pratical standpoint the shed roof you have is good as any, if pitch is suitable for what it's covered in. The most important detail is correct flashing where shed meets wall. The flashing go's behind siding and lay's on top of shingles/metal roof. The chimney might require step shingles on lower roof plus cricket on upper roof. All this is pretty basic for a roofer. Are you planning to do it yourself? If so and you're not clear on flashing details it will be money well spent having a pro detail flashing or at least come by to show you how. Your question is extremly open-ended with stingy details on what you are wanting. If you need the addition to be two floors,handle roof like I explained before.

We added a sunroom on the back of our house and here is how we did it.

The single-story sunroom and the 2-story "turret" were what we added on, to what was a gigantic, flat sea of brick.

The 2 challenges with the single story portion were addressing potential water incursion at the connection, and insulating the ceiling (no attic access from main house). Electrical and HVAC all ran through the crawl space, so no issues there.

I'll say neither addition look's added on weedy. Especially nice considering it's at rear of house where many of use cut corners thinking so few wiil see it to matter. How did you handle main roof at turrent?

weedyacres, that is absolutely beautiful! Inspiring.

Sorry if I've been stingy with the details. We have never done any remodel to date. We won't end up doing it ourselves but I am trying to get a feel for design at least and what options we have for roofing as to get an straightforward opinions and unbiased options. Maybe this will give more insight? I think I like option #4 the best for the look - and could give us some nice high ceilings in the 1-story room, but didn't know if the others were better for other design reasons - e.g. leaking, being able to keep the window as is, etc.

Again, trying to develop some mad ppt skillz ;-)

Thank you.

Option 1 we've covered. Option 2 is ok IF main roof and new roof are continous and pitch doesn't change. Except change of style in front,option 4 is very similar to the way I did mine several years ago and there hasn't been a problem. Peak (aka ridge) in option 4 must start at least a few feet up from edge of main roof. Change of style at front will be fine only if the dormer pitch doesn't meet wall on main house. You can't use enough flashing and tar to prevent leaks if it does. Dormer should be positioned away from main wall so that new roof run's continuesly along wall from peak to drip. Close attention must be given to flashing high side of chimney. I won't try and give you step by step but instead tell you to make certain roofer know's what he's doing. If the person framing and decking isn't one and same as applying shingles,have roofer give instructions on how frameing, decking and flashing should meet wall and chimney. Framer/decker is in best position to install most flashing at wall and chimney. I'm a huge fan of crickets on high side of chimney,esp if there is a large expanse of run off above. Option 5 might be having new ridge hit old wall a foot or more below drip of old roof if measurments work. As stated earlier for best appearance pitch is best maintained throughout if it can be done without interfering with pratical considerations. Shingle mfgr reps are a good source to bounce drawings off of before construction if you have doupts.

I would NOT do a hip roof that sends water back towards the main part of the house. Why not a gable?

klem: They stick-built the roof tie-in on the turret. There are some WIP photos in this thread.