# Roofing in Barbados

> Barbadian roofing: the movable timber chattel house with its steep hip or gable roof, corrugated iron and concrete, under a 1993 national building code.

- URL: https://roof.wiki/roofing-in-barbados/
- Topic: Roofing Around the World
- Also known as: Barbadian roofing; Bajan roofing
- Regions: Latin America, North America
- First published: 2026-11-02 · Last reviewed: 2026-11-02
- Cite as: "Roofing in Barbados." roof.wiki. https://roof.wiki/roofing-in-barbados/

## Key facts

- **Vernacular roof:** Steep hip or gable chattel-house roof
- **Building code:** National Building Code (1993), not mandated by law at the time
- **Common covering (historic):** Corrugated iron

Barbados is a coral-limestone island at the eastern edge of the Caribbean. Its best-known roof belongs to the chattel house, a small movable timber house that has become a national symbol, while most modern houses are concrete block.

## Climate and hazards

Barbados lies at the southern edge of the main Atlantic hurricane track and is struck less often than islands further north, but tropical storms and strong trade winds still shape building practice, along with heavy tropical rain and salt air.

## Roofing history

After emancipation, the Located Labourers Act of 1840 allowed formerly enslaved people to build on marginal plantation land for rent, but landowners could evict them at short notice. Houses therefore had to be movable: timber chattel houses were set on loose coral-stone blocks so they could be taken apart and carried to a new site, first by ox cart and later by truck. Their roofs evolved from hipped roofs and steep double-pitched gables toward flatter, low-slope roofs, and corrugated iron became a common covering. Families extended houses by adding units behind the first, each with its own roof, giving rows of parallel roof ridges (see chattel-house).

## Traditional and vernacular roofs

- **Chattel house**: two-room timber house with a steep hip or gable roof, often of corrugated iron, on coral-stone blocks.
- **Extended chattel house**: successive units under parallel roofs.

Throughout the Eastern Caribbean, older timber houses typically have steep hip or gable roofs clad first in wooden shingles and later in corrugated iron. Hip roofs, sloping on all four sides, are self-bracing and lack tall gable ends that catch the wind, and slopes of about 35 degrees or more are often preferred in hurricane regions because shallower roofs are more prone to uplift.

## Roofing today

Concrete-block houses have become the norm and chattel houses have declined, although restored examples are used as homes and shops.

## Codes, standards and regulation

Barbados published a National Building Code in 1993, but it was not mandated by law. In 1998 the government began updating it and set up a Building Code Advisory Committee, and the Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project advised on a legal and administrative basis for a national Building Authority.

## Notable roofs

Restored chattel houses, used as shops and homes, are the island's most characteristic roofs.

## Local roofing terms

- *Chattel house*: movable timber house, legally personal property rather than real estate.

## Sources and gaps

Roof material statistics and the current legal status of the building code: published information is limited.

## Sources

1. Chattel house — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattel_house
2. Architecture of Barbados — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Barbados
3. Building codes in the Caribbean (CDMP bulletin) — Organization of American States, Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project. https://oas.org/cdmp/bulletin/codes.htm
4. Hip roof — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_roof