Houses can and do outlive people. And periodically, a house will need a new roof. Professional roofers suggest a new roof every 20 to 30 years. In classical Feng Shui, we know that the interior energy of a house is captured when it is built and specifically when the roof is installed to close off direct energy from the sun entering the house. During the construction process, the roof may come before the roof or roofs in the case of a multi-story house.
Therefore, a common question among Feng Shui clients and students is whether or not removing the roof will change the inherent and semi-permanent energies within the house. The answer to this question is multifaceted depending on a number of circumstances. But for the most part, if a roof is removed and the roof is left intact, then the original energy of the house will not change or “escape”. These are the kinds of things that are also considered when a person adds a second story and how he does it.
We call this energy the flying stars, or the house’s flying star chart, which is a combination of energies from “heaven” above and “earth” below. It is a fusion of components of time and space that ends up having a profound and continuous effect on the people who inhabit the house or building.
A roof will act as a second roof, so unless a major part of the roof and roof are removed together at the same time, you won’t see a major change in the interior energies of a house. The same applies to an ordinary small skylight, even though both the roof and the ceiling have been cut away. If it is a small opening and not the size of an atrium, this would not be a problem.
Also, now that people are adding solar panels to their roofs, people are wondering if there will be any influence from Feng Shui one way or another and I don’t think there is. In fact, when it comes to adding solar panels to a roof, it would be considered less of a “sha construction” situation than removing a roof, which is more of a disturbance to the area.
There are still some well-known practitioners who say that you can change the flying star map of a house by removing a couple of tiles. I would not agree. There was also a very famous author who said that if the tiles on your roof are blue, you will meet with great misfortune. To be frank, I think this is not true at all. But everyone should know that the real goal of receiving Feng Shui advice is to empower a person with a greater skill set to control their own destiny, not to scare people. Very rarely will a Feng Shui flaw, real or perceived, cause a serious mishap or disaster in a person’s life. Usually, there would have to be an accumulation of many things out of balance and for some time before the momentum could develop to manifest any major events.
