The building blocks of a taper roof system

By Emma Peterson.

To help visualize and conceptualize the steps to installing a tapered roof, Hunter Panels design team came up with a creative, 3D solution.

While at the 2024 International Roofing Expo (IRE), RoofersCoffeeShop® crew member Lauren White stopped by the Hunter Panels booth. Like many of the tradeshow attendees, she quickly noticed the green and white blocks in front of their booth, puzzled together to design a roof. Natalie Tobey, the product marketing manager explained what was going on and what the blocks represent!

The blocks are designed to highlight Hunter Panels taper department and show attendees how panels can fit together to design a tapered roof. Natalie gave a brief overview of what a taper system should do, “Our department put the designs together to make sure that no roof has standing water.” Standing or ponding water on the roof can be incredibly damaging to the building’s structural integrity and it is a common challenge with low-slope, commercial roofs. Well-designed taper systems, like what Hunter Panels’ team creates, direct the water towards drains and gutters to run off the roof safely.

As for the display at IRE, the blocks themselves were 3D printed by the taper team and represent their regular panels, which have the crucial tapered slope, as well as fill, hips and valley panels and sumps. Fill is used under successive layers of tapered panels to extend the sloped area of the roof and hips, valleys and sumps create the hills and valleys that direct the water off the roof.  

Natalie explained why they put so much time and effort into these building blocks, saying, “We've been getting a lot of people saying, we know the tapered system, but when they're trying to explain it to someone who's actually standing on a roof, it's really hard to visualize. So, we have this to try and help people visualize what the system is actually going to look like.”

Watch the full interview to learn more about Hunter Panels and their tapered systems.