Measure The Base Area Of Your Property
Now, use that tape measure again and take the distance from the edge of one of the eaves to the other edge along the same wall. Record that figure in feet. That will be the roof base width.
Then, measure the distance of the other side of the structure from the edge of the eave to the other. That will be the roof base length.
Multiply those figures together to get an estimate of the base area for the roof structure. For example, if your roof base width is 35 feet and your roof base length is 60 feet, the total base area would be 2100 square feet.
How To Figure Out The Square Footage Of A Roof
Repairing or replacing your roof can be expensive, especially if you dont know how to calculate its square footage. A wrong estimate can cost you thousands of dollars and might even delay your roof repair, leaving your home exposed to the elements. The good news is you can easily estimate the square footage of your roof with a few tools and basic geometry.
Calculate Roof Pitch From The Ground In Three Quick Steps
Roof pitch is one of those things that middle school math and geometry instructors can easily point to, and say, See? Learning how to work with rise over run is fun and useful, right? If at any moment you start having PTSD flashbacks to algebra or geometry class, take a deep breath. Well walk you through this slowly in three simple steps. All you need is a tape measure, and possibly a helper to hold it.
Step One: Grab that tape measure, notepad, and pencil and head outside. Find the slope of your roof youd like to measure, and start measuring the distance from the outer edge of the eave to the point at which the plane of the roof slope is barely visible to your eye. Write that number down in both inches. This figure is the horizontal run.
Step Two: Stand directly underneath the gutter or edge of the roof plane you want to calculate the slope for. Measure the distance from your eye to the top of the drip edge of your roof overhang. Write that number down in inches, too. This figure is the roof rise.
Step Three: Take the roof rise figure in Step Two and divide it by the horizontal run from Step One. In the example above, the rise is 60 inches and the run is 120 inches. This reduces down to a roof pitch of 6/12. Well use this figure in just a bit, so keep it handy.
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Should I Use 15 Or 30
If your roof does not have a steep pitch, you can use #15. This weight of felt is a good economic choice if you have a standard roof. But if your roof has a steep pitch, #30 is a better option because it is thicker and tears less during installation. With #30 you get a thicker layer of underlayment and protection.
Expressing Roof Slope In Degrees
The rest of the English-speaking world uses degrees, which seems simpler, but it takes a few extra steps to figure it out mathematically.
It also doesnt immediately convey as much information about the roof on a practical level as the rise-in-run ratio expression.
To express the slope in degrees, you divide the rise by the run and find the inverse tangent of the result.
But you still need to know the rise and the run, the X-in-12, in order to find the roof slope in degrees, unless youre using a slope finder that tells you the slope in degrees.
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S To Measuring Roof Square Footage
Draw Each Shape Individually Calculate Each Area And The Total Square Footage Of Your Roof
Now we have eight shapes to find the area of six triangles and two rectangles. Instead of breaking out the old textbooks to calculate triangle areas, we like to use a triangle calculator. It makes figuring out the area of triangles a lot simpler.
In the example above, we have two triangles with sides of 30, 20, and 20 feet. Pop those figures in the three-sides calculator and youll get an area of 198. Since we have two of those triangles, multiply by 2 for a running total of 396 square feet.
We have four remaining triangles, all with dimensions of 15, 20, and 25 feet. That same calculator reveals a result of 150 square feet. Since there are four of those triangles, multiply by 4 to get 600 square feet.
Lastly, we have two rectangles of 15 by 30 feet. This one is easy, just width times height for a total of 450 square feet for each one. Multiply by 2 and their total square footage is 900.
Adding all the areas up yields a total of 1896 square feet . Since roofing material comes in 100 square foot squares, youll need at least 19 of them for your roofing project. Itd be wise to get at least 20 to account for mistakes and waste.
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Squares Rectangles And Triangles
Nearly every roof, no matter how simple or complicated, can be broken down into squares, rectangles or triangles. You can draw lines on your diagram from the ridge to the eaves to make triangles out of the hips. This will leave you with four triangles for the hips, two rectangles for the rest of the hip roof, and another rectangle for the lean-to roof.
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Gable Roof Design Calculations
In this case, such a calculating sequence will depend on its shape, since two slopes do not always have the same dimensions and inclination angles. There are also two ways of how to calculate roof square of the gable design: if a house is already built, or it is only on the drawing.
Also read: How to build a gable roof for the conventional housing
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Measure A Roof From Blueprints With Simple
When the economy is growing and consumer confidence is high, new home construction follows suit. Not everyone is feeling like popping the cork on the Dom Perignon champagneat this point in time, but it seems more people are getting ready to move into new homes as stocks go up and the job market thrives.
Building a brand new home obviously involves a brand new roof. The more traditional way of scaling out blueprints is to do it by hand using various tools such as a tri-ruler and other utilitarian items. But, some roofing contractors are leveraging high-tech to their advantage by using aerial and satellite technology to measure, and roofing applications to save time and money.
The architects who create the blueprints dont always anticipate the specific needs of the contractors who will perform certain jobs on the property, such as constructing the roof. The architects drawings are often too complex for roof bidding purposes.
Having only a blueprint for a new home doesnt mean that a roofing contractor must put aside their high-tech roof measurement and estimating application and pull out the ol tri-ruler.
An app like iRoofing certainly can make it a lot easier to produce a roofing report and detailed cost estimate faster than you can say win the job for the whole darn subdivision.
Figure Out The Area Of The Shed Plus The Overhangs
Determine the squre footage of the shed foot print by measuring the length and width of the shed including the overhangs. For example, if you have a simple 12 foot by 16 foot shed you add the overhangs to those dimensions. If the overhangs are 1′-0″ then you have 2′ extra each dimension. 14′ x 18′ = 252 sf. flat.
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Calculate The Surface Area Of The Roof
Take the area of a roofs footprint, say its 5,000 square feet, and multiply 5,000 by 1.118.
That gives you 5,590 square feet, which is the actual area of the surface of the roof. And thats what you were looking for.
This applies to rafter lengths as well as areas. A rafter for a roof with a 6:12 slope will be 1.118 times as long as the horizontal length that it covers.
Finding The Total Roof Area
Once the area of the roofs footprint is known, the overall roof area can be found by accounting for the roofs pitch. The pitch of the roof is the rise over a 12-inch run. Use our roof pitch calculator to find the pitch of your roof.
Next, multiply the footprint of the roof by the multiplier below for your roof pitch to find the overall roof area.For example, a 4/12 pitch roof that is 100 square feet:
100 × 1.054 = 105.4ft2
Roof Pitch Area Multipliers
Multipliers for common roof pitches that can be used to find the total area of a roof.| Pitch |
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Already Subscribed To The Iroofing App
Already subscribed to the iRoofing app? Great. Heres a step-by-step guide to measuring with blueprints:
How To Measure A Roof From Blueprints
Having only a blueprint for a new home doesnt mean that a roofing contractor must put aside their high-tech roof measurement and estimating application and pull out the ol tri-ruler.
An app certainly can make it a lot easier to produce a roofing report and detailed cost estimate faster than you can say win the job for the whole darn subdivision.
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Roofing Squares: A Way To Measure Your Roof
So youve decided to re-shingle your roof, youve called the contractor and all seems well until the contractor comes down and you hear a term youre not familiar with, roofing square
What? you ask yourself, wondering what exactly the person you hired just said to you, did they mean a square foot, a panel, something else entirely? Dont worry, youre not alone. Its a question we at Rennison Roofing get all the time!
Find The Area Of The Roofs Footprint
Determine the area of the roofs footprint, which is the area covered by a roof regardless of slope .
Google Earth Pro makes finding the area of a roofs footprint pretty easy with the measuring tools they have available, but you can also simply measure the dimensions of the building on the ground and figure out the area that way .
Dont forget to take into account overhanging eaves or any other areas where the roof extends beyond the exterior walls of the building.
You will also need to increase your total footprint area to include any areas where one roof section overhangs another roof section. Youll probably be trying to estimate the entire area of a roof.
Figuring out the area of a roofs footprint is easier if you print a satellite image of your roof to write your measurements on. The white thing on the left is a carport with a metal panel roof, and the dark rectangle at the bottom left is a covered porch that was apparently added after the house was built.
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The Fastest Safest And Most Accurate Ways To Measure Your Roof For Shingles
Congratulations on beginning your new roof project! If youre wondering how to measure a roof, what roofing materials to order, or whether your roofing contractor is properly estimating your requirements, our roof measurement guide is here to help. On this page, we provide you with three different ways to measure roof area for shingles or a new metal roof.
The first way is the simplest, especially if youre good with a computer. Well show you how to get a rough estimate of the roofing squares youll need just with Google Earth. The second approach allows you to measure your roof from the ground. This can be especially helpful if you have a dangerous roof and would prefer to keep yourself safe. The third way to measure your roof is from on top of the structure itself. The advantage of this option is that its the most accurate, but it involves a little more geometry and math than the other options.
Let’s get measuring.
How To Measure Your Total Roof Area
Length x width = square footage
In order to determine the amount of shingles you need for your roof, youll need to know the square footage of your roofs surface. Measurements for the area of the roof will depend on what roof type you may have, whether its a gable roof with fewer planes or a hip roof with more.
To find the square footage of your roof, measure the roof length and roof width of each plane, including overhangs, and multiply them together. Then, add up the square footage of each plane. This will give you the total square footage.
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The Type Of Roof You Want
The type of roof you want will have a big impact on the cost of your roof replacement. There are a variety of different types of roofs for you to choose from based on your budget and the look you want.
If youre on a tight budget and looking for an affordable roof, an asphalt shingle roof might be right for you. But if youre looking to upgrade to a longer-lasting and sharp looking roof, theres the standing seam metal roof.
Asphalt and metal are two of the most commonly seen roof types, but there are also premium shingle roofs that come at a premium price. These roofs give you a unique look that really stands out. These premium roofs include cedar shake, slate, and tile.
The premium shingle roofs can get expensive quickly and be more than triple the cost of an asphalt shingle roof.
Find The Area Of The Footprint Of The Roof
To calculate a roofs dimensions, you need to measure the roof as if it were flat, then account for roof pitch, calculate square footage, and finally determine how many squares of material are required for the roof.
The calculator above can handle all of this, simply enter the length, width, and pitch, and it will determine the size of the roof in squares.
Start by measuring the roofs length and width in feet as youre standing on the ground. Remember that the length and width need to be found for the roof, not the house, so take into account that the roof overhangs the building.
Then determine the area of the roof as if it were flat. Multiply the length by the width in feet to get the area measurement.
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How To Calculate Number Of Roofing Shingles
Fortunately, you don’t have to make a haphazard shingle estimate when planning for your roofing project: your roof size and chosen shingle type will guide the purchase process.
Shingles are sold in prepackaged bundles, not individually. Roofing manufacturers take the guesswork out of how many bundles you need per squareit’s listed in the specifications of each shingle they make. The specs for any given shingle will tell you how many bundles make up a square, how many shingles are in a square, and even the approximate number of nails you’ll need per square.
Often, three bundles of prepackaged asphalt shingles make one square, as is the case with the Timberline® HDZ Shingles. That said, the number of bundles you need can vary depending on shingle design. For example, five bundles of architectural asphalt shingles with artisan-crafted shapes, such as the Grand Sequoia® Shingle, cover one square. Once you know the number of squares of material your roof needs, check the shingle manufacturer specifications so you get your hands on exactly what you need.
If you’re still deciding on the perfect shingle for your roof, play around with the GAF VirtualRemodeler. The free online tool helps you envision how different shingle colors and styles would work with your home’s style. Be sure to keep local building codes in mind as you weigh your shingle options..
