Estimating The Cost Of The Roof
Once you know the area of the roof, you have to decide on the scope of works. Do you want to build the roof from scratch, or maybe replace the old layers? You also need to decide on the finishing material. For example, asphalt shingles will be less expensive than clay tiles.
After youve made all of these decisions, its best to contact your local contractor and ask about the cost of both materials and labor per square meter or square foot of roof area. Remember that this unit price should include all additional elements such as fasteners, as well as the cost of removing all layers and disposing of them .
The most typical cost of roofing falls between $2 and $4 per square foot . If the price proposed by your contractor deviates from these values, it is advisable to check with other contractors before starting the works.
If you cannot contact any contractor, calculate the cost of materials and multiply this price by 2.5. You will obtain an approximate price including labor, assuming that 40% of the cost is taken by the materials and 60% by the labor.
The last thing you have to do is to multiply this cost by your roof area and voilà, you now know the total cost of your roof! Remember that the real cost might differ from this value a bit due to waste, so plan ahead and assign more funds to this construction work.
Make sure to take a look at our concrete slab cost calculator, too!
How To Measure A Roof For Shingles
August 28, 2019 By Taylor-Made Roofing
Whether youre re-roofing your home or purchasing shingles for a brand-new house, its important to understand that a successful roofing project often requires a significant investment of both time and money. As you begin shopping for materials, you might wonder how to measure a roof for shingles. After all, roofing materials vary greatly in cost and are priced per square foot. To determine the size of your roof, contact a professional roofer who can measure your roof and provide an estimate for the roofing project.
What Influences A Roofing Projects Cost
Although a roofs size is always a major factor in calculating project costs, other elements may influence a contractors quote, such as:
- Your location and the average roofing project prices in your area.
- Your choice of roofing material
- Roof accessibility and ease of installation
- The contractors certifications and level of work
- Project timeline
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How To Measure A Roof Using Google Earth
If youre looking for a free way to measure your roof using imagery you can find on a smartphone or computer, consider logging into Google Earth and searching for your home. If you live in a large enough metropolitan area, youll find both the 2D and 3D imagery needed to take roof measurements online.
Begin by entering your address into Google Earths search function. Youll get a birds-eye 3D view of the property, which will allow you to get a good view of the roof pitch. Position the view, so youre looking down on the roof.
Use Google Earths area measurement tool to outline the section of roof you want to measure, making sure to set the display to feet. Once you create a box, Google will tell you the length of each side and the total square footage.
You can use that number with the slope factor of your roof to come up with a fairly accurate estimate.
This method isnt as precise as the expensive apps, but it will give you a good enough estimate of the square footage of your roof to purchase shingles.
What Is Slope Factor
Taking a 2D measurement of a roof either online via Google Earth or by measuring the exterior walls of the home doesnt account for the elevation of the roof, which adds square footage. Slope factor is a convenient way of using the pitch of your roof to convert a 2D measurement to an accurate measurement of the roofs square footage.
| Roof Slope |
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What Is The Average Price Per Square Foot
According to the latest estimates, the median price for each square foot for a home in the United States is $123 . But that can vary widely based on where you live and other factors. For instance, on the low end, youll pay $24 a square foot in Detroit. On the expensive end, in San Francisco, $810 . Aug 23 2019
S To Measuring Roof Square Footage
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What Roof Type Is Best Suited For Your Roof Pitch
If you have roof pitch of 3/13 or lower, it is highly recommended that you use/install a flat or low slope roofing .
If your roof slope is above 3/12 , you can install either asphalt shingles, or a metal roof, or one of the exotic roof types: Slate, Tile, Wood, etc.
Metal roofs have the highest wind blow-off resistance, and are best suited for ice dams prevention especially if your roof slope is below 6/12!
How Do You Calculate The Square Footage Of Your Roof
Is it time for a roof replacement? Are you trying to figure out how much youll have to invest in your new roof?
If so, youre probably overwhelmed trying to learn everything that goes into the cost of your roof replacement. To help you understand the size of your roof investment, you first need to know the size of your roof. Thats why were going to break down how to measure your roofs square footage.
The team at Bill Ragan Roofing has been repairing and replacing roofs in Nashville and surrounding areas since 1990. We take extreme pride in everything we do, especially our workmanship.
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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 Ã 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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Gathering Measurements For Your Roof
If you are choosing to do a DIY of the cost of your roof replacement without calling a professional to do it for you, then you will have to learn how to measure square footage of your roof, as all labor and material cost is going to be based on the total amount of area to work with. This is standard practice across all roofing companies, as most of the time the actual price for replacement is systematized with the actual space of the area.
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How Many Shingles Do I Need For 200 Square Feet
Roofing felt is sold by the roll. The average roll of 15-pound roofing felt covers about 400 ft2, or 4 squares, while the average roll of 30-pound roofing felt covers about 200 ft2, or 2 squares. Rolls of felt are 36 wide x 144 long for 15# and 72 long for 30#.
How many feet does a square of shingles cover?
100 sq. ft.A square of shingles is the quantity needed to cover 100 sq. ft. of roof. Shingles are packaged in paper- or plastic-wrapped bundles designed to be light enough for a person to carry, so heavier shingles require more bundles per square.
How do I figure out how many bundles of shingles?
Just measure the length of the ridges and hips and divide by 35 to determine how many bundles of regular or hip-and-ridge shingles youll need.
How Many Rolls Of Felt Will You Need
Roofing felt is sold by the roll. The average roll of 15-pound roofing felt covers about 400 ft2, or 4 squares, while the average roll of 30-pound roofing felt covers about 200 ft2, or 2 squares.
Rolls of felt are 36 wide x 144 long for 15# and 72 long for 30#. Consider other underlayment options as needed, such as rubber or tar products.
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Do You Need Roof Repair Replacement Or New Installation In The Dallas Fort Worth Area
If so, TX Roofing Solutions is the first choice for residents in the Dallas, Texas, area.
Providing free, no-obligation roof inspections, our company can handle any service request you may have. Whether youre in Euless, Arlington, Flower Mound, Keller, Coppell, Grapevine or a surrounding area, were happy to provide you with honest, reputable roofing services.
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Below, there is a simple triangle, and the math used to work out how to make a proper measurement. Once you work through the basic triangle, we will review a typical roof, and how to apply some simple math to calculate how much material you will need for a roof used in our hypothetical example.
1 roof square = 100 square feet The length times the height of a triangle is twice its area . So if you divide your answer of a product of length times height by two, you will get the area of a triangle. /2 = Area
| New Shingle Roof |
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In Figure above: l=30 feet h=12 feet /2 = 180 square feet
Now that the basic concept has been covered, lets take a look at a more complex roofing system. In this overhead view you see both a hip-end section, and gable ends. With a more complex roof such is this one, it is highly recommended that you make a basic sketch. By doing so, it will be easier to mark your measurements, and calculate the necessary materials for the project. For this example we will break this roof up into sections labeled A through E.
In the figure B. above, a sketched portion is a basic triangle. As we did in the first example, measure the length of the eaves, and the vertical line from the eaves half way point to the peak. Multiply these numbers, and then divide the answer by two./2 = 270 square feet
S1 = /2 = 135 square feetS2 = 50 Ã 15 = 750 square feetS3 = /2 = 135 square feet
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How To Calculate Roof Area
Easy to follow guide compiled by a roofing installation expert.
Installing a new roof is a capital intensive affair that requires you to establish your budget in advance. Thankfully, it is easy to estimate the costs by calculating the roof area and then using the sum to determine the cost of shingles per square foot.
Heres how to calculate roof area of your home:
Requirements: A strong ladder, large level, tape measure, marker, paper, and pencil.
1.) Measure the pitch
This is the first thing to do when you set out to calculate the area of your roof. Use your measuring tape to measure 12 inches on your large level and put a mark at the 12-inch line.
Place the ladder beside your building at the gable end. Ascend to the top of your roof. Thereafter, place the level against the gable trim and flat against the side of the house.
READ: How to estimate building costs
Use your measuring device to measure from the 12-inch mark on your level all the way to the bottom of the edge of your gable trim. This figure is your rise measurement.
Each rise dimension is inscribed as # in 12 and this is the pitch of your roof. For example, if your rise measurement is 4 inches, your roofs pitch is 4 in 12.
2.) Calculate the estimated roof area
When pressed for time, you can easily use your pitch calculation to get an estimated area of your roof. This is how to do it:
3.) Calculate the exact roof area
Follow these steps to figure out the exact area of your roof:
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 2,100 square feet.
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How To Calculate A Roofing Square
Before beginning, make sure you can safely access your roofif you cant, contact a roofing professional for help.
Grab your measuring tape, level, pen and paper, roof safety equipment, and your ladder. With these in hand, you can measure your roof in five simple steps.
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Roof Square Footage Calculator
While it is good to know how to do the calculations yourself, there is a much easier way: a calculator! You can just put in the length, width, and pitch of the roof. Once you plug them in, it will calculate the squares and amount of supplies that you will need to redo the roof. You can even use it to calculate only a portion of the roof to determine the number of materials needed for a smaller project.
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Roofing Felt Paper Pricing And Installation Cost Checklist
- Get at least 3-5 estimates before hiring a Roofing Felt Paper contractor estimates are typically free, unless its a service call for a repair.
- Expect the Roofing Felt Paper prices to fluctuate between various companies each and every company have different operation expenses and over-head.
- Try to get prices in late Fall, early winter you should expect aggressive pricing discounts by waiting for a contractors down season.
- Try to budget and additional 7-15% more on top of what our calculator gives out I.e difficult configurations, patterns, hips, valleys, dormers, curbs, ventilation, etc. The additional complexity of your roof will add to the Roofing Felt Paper costs.
- Visit every supply house that sell your particular brand of Roofing Felt Paper and try to negotiate a better price with each supplier I save on average 20%.
- Remember, there are multiple styled homes in the U.S from: Contemporary, colonial, cape-cod style, ranch, bungalow, victorian, etc. So keep that in mind and try to budget a little more, before starting your Roofing Felt Paper project.
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How Do I Calculate How Many Square Feet Of Suitable Roof Space I Have For Solar Panels
Once you have worked out which parts of your roof produce an acceptable power yield and return on investment by using the solar production calculator for each different roof segment you can then simply measure these roof segments.
You could jump up on your roof and measure these with a tape measure but it is much easier and much safer to measure these roof segments online. In 99% of cases an online measure is accurate enough to determine that a desired array of solar panels will fit on your roof.
Google Earth, Google maps and other online mapping websites usually have scale drawings and you can blow up a picture of your roof.
However, the issue with this is that you are measuring the flat horizontal segment of a tilted surface so that actual space available on the roof will be larger than what it measures in 2D.
The beauty of this though is that you know you will always have more room than the square footage you calculate from a 2D image and that if your array will fit within the square feet, you calculate by this method you will have ample room to install.
However, if you are trying to maximize solar panels on a given roof space you will need to take account of the slope of the roof. You can use basic trigonometry to work out the the size of the roof space once you know the horizontal area and the tilt angle of the roof.
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