15 Ways to Build a LEGO Roof

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published June 7, 2022.

Welcome everyone, time for another technique spotlight! This time I thought we would have a look at one of the more prominent pieces of architecture when building houses—namely the roof. Why roofs? Well, I’m glad you asked—because roofs are awesome, that’s why! Seriously though, roofs can actually be pretty awesome and it’s definitely something that can elevate a build from “that looks nice“ to “holy crap, that is spectacular!“ So to help you guys out a bit, and hopefully fill you with inspiration for your next build, join me as we take a little dive into some of the different ways you can do this. So let’s get nerdy about LEGO roofs!

There are a LOT of different ways to go about building a roof using lots of different kinds of LEGO elements. Below you’ll find quite a few techniques that I’ve gathered from throughout the community.

We’ll start off with a fun technique that uses black Technic pins. This is a piece that most AFOLs have quite a few of, and they’re usually really cheap on BrickLink, which makes them ideal for larger roofs. This is beautifully displayed by Digger 1221 in this medieval blacksmith.

Moving on we have a technique by o0ger which uses another rather common piece, the 1x1 cone. It creates a great pattern, tessellates with itself, and as this piece comes in quite a few colours, it’s easy to get a lot of different looks using it.

Here is a fun technique using brown chairs turned upside down, as well as some tiles, that creates a great pattern. Illustrated below by Cab.

Using repetition is a great way to add some texture to your roof. Displayed beautifully by lorddan413 in this medieval tavern.

One of the best to ever do it, the AFOL turned LEGO designer, César Soares has a great track record when it comes to roofs. He’s amazing at using tiles and wedges to create crazy angles and texture for his roofs.

If you’re looking for something piece-consuming and complex, this example by Lech Kulina should be right up your alley. Lech is great at matching angles to create texture and this roof is a great example of just that.

Tiles are great for getting texture on your roof, especially if you (like me…) don’t mind if they are just barely connected…It’s a fairly simple technique, but very efficient. Here’s one of my own cottages using the technique.

Nowadays there are a lot of different types of tiles and one of my personal favourites is the quarter tile. It allows for some fantastic texture-work which of course can be used for roofs. Illustrated beautifully below by Jan, the Creator.

Another simple, but very pretty, way to make a roof is using 1x1 round bricks together with plates. Illustrated below by the talented Isaac Snyder.

Something a lot more complicated, and piece-consuming, is this wonderful technique by Patrick B. Sure, it may take a while to make this type of roof but you can’t really argue with the result.

This technique by Peter Ilmrud uses a rather unusual roof-piece, namely carrots! It creates great texture which really helps elevate the whole build.

Creating roof-structure on a smaller scale is quite a challenge. The technique of using minifig-hands is a great way to make a thatched roof at that scale, illustrated here by BrickNerd’s own Garmadon.

Speaking of thatched roofs, this one by Full Plate is truly spectacular. It might not be the easiest to make but it sure is pretty. (Read my whole interview with them here!)

It’s always good to go out on a high note so I’ll round this whole thing off showing you guys two roof-techniques by the talented Sir Markus Rollbühler, enthusiastic AFOL and profound LEGO designer as well as BrickNerd contributor extraordinaire. The first one uses cheese slopes in a fairly simple way which gives a great sloping pattern.

The second one is slighly more complex but most of all it shows that pretty much any piece can be used for making a cool roof.

So there we have it folks, a ton of different roof techniques from all around the community. I really hope you found some inspiration going through this article, I know I did when researching this theme. And I hope you’ll join me for upcoming articles as I plan on doing a few more of these technique overviews. Feel free to leave a comment below on what you would like us to have a closer look at next (walls, floors, brick-built animals?). Thanks for stopping by!

What other ways are there to build a LEGO roof? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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