The intersection of two or three barrel vaults produces a rib vault or ribbed vault when they are edged with an armature of piped masonry often carved in decorative patterns; compare groin vault, an older form of vault construction. While the mechanics of the weight of a groin vault and its transmission outwards to the supporting pillars remained as it had been, the new use of rib vaults demonstrates the skill of the masons and the grandeur of the new ideas circulating at the introduction of Gothic architecture in the end of the eleventh century. This technique was new in the late eleventh century, for example in the roofs of the choir side aisles at Durham Cathedral. Ancestors of the Gothic rib vault in the Romanesque vaults can be found at Caen and Durham, both sites of early Gothic constructions, and elsewhere.

Some ribbed vaults even have six sections in each bay (for example, the sexpartite vault, formed by the intersection of three half "barrels").

These advances in vaulting allowed for the addition of more windows high up in the building and also led to other additions to the higher reaches of a church such as the clerestory and the triforium where also additional space was provided for visiting saints and angels.

Early Gothic buildings commonly display ribbed vaulting made of stone for the support of the weight of a wooden ceiling. Stone ceilings are stronger; for example, the chapter house at Southwell Minster has stone vaulting and no central pillar.