If you want to lose 10 feet of width in that 2nd, go right ahead. The whole point of that shallower slope is to give you a floor that's 23 feet wide instead of 13 or 14. You're not considering the ceiling height.

Ask "the previous architect". The drawing shown is confusing to me.

I think the OP is asking about the main roof not the dormer.

The designer would need a good reason to create a lopsided appearance at the end elevation of the house. Show us that drawing. Is it an existing house?

Yes RES 3D Sketches, you are correct about which area the concern lies. This is not an existing house. This is what the East elevation looks like so that you can see what is going on with the roof lines in the picture.

What does the North elevation look like?

PPF, The North elevation is the picture I attached to the question.

I’m wondering if the lopsided appearance is due to making room for clearance as the stairs enter the room. I guess my big question is- will this look strange? Is this something commonly done or something I should try to work out before moving forward?

Drafter. Enough said.

You posted a Stair Elevation which shows interior parts of the house.

You should have a North elevation showing the exterior.

Showing floor plans and or roof plans would also be helpful and it's difficult to understand the shape without them.

live_wire_oak What do you mean by “drafter”?

From the North elevation above, it looks like the smaller gable is lopsided as well.

Why aren’t you working with an architect?

We were, until he had to leave the project due to health issues. Long story short, we were close enough with plans that we just needed a drafter to put the final plans into a CAD program.

You need another architect. You have major issues that a drafter cannot over one. A house facing West to start with. And the house design too.

It is such a subtle difference that chances are nobody will notice, although it may be slightly more complicated to frame and the horizontal forces may differ. It is not normal.

I do not see a shed dormer on the north elevation.

Mark Bischak, the dormer is on the West side.

Live_wire_oak The house faces east

I suspect the large dormer will require a ridge beam so the different roof slopes are probably not a problem but it appears there is no reason for the imbalance.

If the ridge were to be moved about 18" to the left, the roof slopes would be the same. That's why I though it was an existing building; there's no reason to not frame the roof in a symmetrical fashion.

Perhaps there's one or more posts that supports the ridge beam that need to be offset on the lower floors. I've seen that before but not in a new house design. Its something worth some trouble to avoid.

My guess is that it originally was drawn symmetrically until the former architect took a good look at the stair section at the last minute and realized there was a headroom clearance problem over the stair. There are many different ways to remedy this by altering the design (changing the floor plan or section) rather than pivoting the roof rafter asymmetrically for headroom. Without seeing the entire plan & getting input from the original architect it’s hard to say why they decided to do that.

Showing the scale figures standing at the top of the stair like that (not sure if they were on the original drawings) is a way to test out the stair graphically. Stair section may have been done at a late stage, alarm bells went off, and this was an easy way to fix it (at least he/she caught it on paper and not in the field during construction). Planning for and calculating headroom using the stair rise & run and a sloping ceiling together is almost impossible using just floor plans and math, it’s one of those things best figured out graphically in a section with height measurements at each step. Unfortunately sometimes accurate sections don’t get added until last.

I‘m glad you saw this on paper and have the opportunity to fix it before construction.

What the original designer did was move the ridge about 18" to the right which lowered the head room over the stair so I still think the ridge was shifted in order to move a support post or perhaps it was just a drafting error.

I also suspect no architect was involved at any point. The work is too sloppy even for a trained drafter. Its an amateur effort.

Thank you all for your helpful comments. It gives me confidence to point this out and have it remedied before moving forward.

There are a lot more issues than just the roof. You need someone with some actual design talent on board. Its been lacking so far. Thats a round file effort. Not a buildable plan. Who had the family areas facing west???

mackdolan- you aren’t the first to say this, but both bedrooms, the master, and the living room are all on the east side.

From all your posts I see you need an architect right now