Hire A Professional Contractor To Measure The Tiles
As you can see, measuring a tile roof is not as difficult as many would have you believe. However, because it can be difficult to walk on a roof and measure it, it can be dangerous work for inexperienced people. For a simple roof, I generally figure 1 percent as a waste factor. To make life easier and safer, its best to hire a professional contractor to measure your shingles and the best experts.
How To Measure Roof Slope Outdoors At The Gable End Of A Building
You need: a tape measure and, if there is no horizontal siding installed, you will need a carpenter’s level.
From a ladder or other accessible area giving safe access to the sloping gable end trim or roof edges,
1. Measure out horizontally 12″ from the gable end sloping trim to a point along horizontal siding, or use your level to make a mark that is level, horizontally measured out 12″ from the sloped gable trim or roof edge.
2. From the point you just marked, measure vertically straight up to the edge of the same sloping gable end trim or roof edge. This distance is the roof rise in inches per foot of run.
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.
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How To Measure A Roof
This article was co-authored by David Bitan. David Bitan is a roofing professional, licensed contractor, and the owner and founder of Bumble Roofing based in Southern California. With over 12 years of construction industry experience, David specializes in restoring, repairing, and maintaining residential, commercial, and industrial roofs. With over 60 years of combined experience, Bumble Roofing provides easy, friendly services to structures including residential, commercial, industrial, multi-family, and government buildings along with hospitals, hotels, and churches.There are 13 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 339,713 times.
Measuring your roof is the first step in a successful re-roofing project. You can actually get an estimate of your roof’s measurements from the ground if you’d rather not climb a ladder and get up on the roof yourself. Otherwise, you can climb up onto your roof to take more accurate measurements. Either way, we’ve got you covered! This article will walk you through each process step-by-step.
What Makes Measuring The Square Footage Of A House Important
When buying a home you love, it may not matter to you if the house is 2,000 square feet or 2,500 square feet. After all, buying a home is about far more than just square footage the homes upgrades and amenities, outdoor space, and neighborhood may be important factors to you as well. However, it is critical to know the square footage of the home you are preparing to purchase, as that number may impact your homes listing price should you choose to sell it down the line. If you prepare to sell the home several years after purchasing it, you may list it for a price that is in line with homes that have sold for 2,500 square feet. When selling a home in Raleigh it’s imperative that the square footage of the home be measured correctly or the sellers and Listing Agent will be on the hook. However, if a buyer puts in an offer and finds out during the transaction process that the home is 500 square feet less than what they were told, they may ask for a price reduction or to walk away from the deal altogether.
While this is an extreme scenario, situations such as these have happened in the past especially in a strong buyers market when buyers have a wealth of properties on the market to choose from.
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Here Are Some Of The Things To Consider Before Measuring Roof Overhang
- If the roof overhangs are not large enough, the only way to protect these windows, doors, and entryways is to recess them in a thick exterior wall or install unique covers and flashings for each door or entrance.
- There may be a situation where overlap does not provide sufficient protection. This situation where the overhang does not provide adequate protection is especially familiar with more modern architectural styles. The emphasis is on producing sleek, curved buildings or square, wide-angle buildings.
- There is also another problem to consider i.e., the wind. The length of the roof overhang must be adequately designed to withstand upward winds. This is especially true in geographic areas where high winds are a common problem.
- In the worst case, all external damage from rain and splashing will lead to the sides premature rotting. If you visit suburban neighborhoods with old houses, you can often see examples of exteriors where the panels seem to protrude from the house. This is a clear sign that something is wrong with the dimensions of the suspended ceiling structure.
Recommendation Of How To Calculate Square Footage Of A Roof
The construction process likes precision. To correctly build and lay a roof firstly it is necessary to understand all nuances of how to calculate square footage of a roof.
Very often people decide to make a roof and a house itself on their own. In this case they should definitely know how to calculate square footage of a roof. In the space calculation you must be especially careful, since with the wrong approach you risk not only to get an ugly structure appearance, but also spend money for the purchase of excess materials.
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How To Calculate Square Footage Of A House Roof:
To calculate the square footage of a roof, measure the length and width of each plane on the roof . The plane of the roof is one side of the roof that has four separate edges. A dormer is a structure that sticks out of the roof and typically contains windows. After measuring the roofs plane and dormers, multiply the length times the width. Go onto the other side of the roof and measure the other side of the roofs plane, and include any dormers on that side as well. Multiply the length times the width on that side of the roof. Take the measurements from both sides of the roof and combine those numbers to get the total square footage of the homes roof.
How to calculate square footage of a 2-story house:
To calculate the square footage of a 2-story house, simply measure every room in the house. Exclude any unfinished areas, such as the garage or an unfinished basement. After measuring each room individually including the closets in each room combine the measurements from all rooms. The total number is the square footage of the 2-story home. While the thought of measuring a 2-story home may seem daunting, it is best to think of the house as a collection of individual boxes. After compiling the measurements of each box, you will have your total square footage calculation for the entire home.
How many square feet is a 10×10 room?
Square footage calculators:
What Is The American National Standards Institute Method For Measuring Square Footage
While a national standard for measuring square footage is not currently in place, an organization called the American National Standards Institute provides guidelines on how to calculate square feet of a house, which many real estate agents and homeowners follow. The ANSI method encourages calculating square footage from the homes exterior, but the wall width is not typically subtracted to account for actual living space. Many condominiums do not have square footage guidelines in place and do not always follow ANSI guidelines.
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Calculate The Simple Roof Areas
On a simple hip or gable roof, multiplying the eave to ridge length by eave length will give the area to be multiplied by pitch factor. Ridge vent openings are best finished with coil rather than partial shingle. Using flat coil stock allows the ridge caps to lay flat and can also be formed with an extra water stop at the ridge opening.
Area for the roof in Figure 3 is 1784 ft2 The blue dash line divides the roof into 2 rectangles. There is a small area calculated as 8/12 that is actually 4/12. On a small area such as this, it is better to err on the side of the higher pitch since it should not significantly affect the total.
Pro Tip: Pythagorean Theorem can be used to calculate the length of the valleys. A general rule of thumb is to add at least 12 lineal inches of valley material to be safe.
Figure 3. Calculating Simple Roof Areas
Calculating Your Roof Area: Gable Roof
Youll first need to measure the length of your roof. This is the length of your roofs ridge from end to end. Next, youll need to measure your roofs slope height. This is the length from the eaves up to the ridge, NOT the distance between your roof deck and the apex .
If you dont know these measurements, you can often find them on the building plans from when you bought the property. If you dont have these, get in touch with your local council, who should be able to provide your propertys building plans.
To calculate your roof area, simply multiply your roof length by your roof slope height, and multiply this by two. This should give you the total area of your roof, not accounting for a chimney or other sections of your roof not covered by tiles.
x 2 = Roof Area
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Figure Out Your Homes Footprint
If you use the square footage of your home, youll only get a vague idea of what the square footage of your roof is. Thats why you have to figure out your homes footprint.
A person of average height will have a stride somewhere between 2 to 2.5 feet. To figure out your homes footprint, you can step off the dimensions of your roof by counting the steps you take to get the length of your home. You will then step off the width of your home.
After stepping off the length and width of your home, youll multiply the two numbers to get your homes footprint.
Length x width = your home’s footprint
Your calculations are going to be off, but measuring this way can give you a basic idea of your homes footprint. Keep in mind, square footage of a house does not equal the square footage of a roof.
Use Measurements To Calculate Square Area
The last step in measuring a shingle roof is probably the easiest, as you are only using the measurements to calculate the squared area of the roof. For each roof section, you measured, multiply the length by the width, which gives you the squared area of that section. If you dont want to do a lot of measuring, you can use your pitch calculation to get the estimated square footage of your roof: Once you have your roofs pitch, divide the number by 12. Then add up the square footage of each section to get the total square footage of the roof. Although roofing projects are estimated and sold by the square, roofing material is often not sold in 1 square increment.
Finally, divide the total square footage by one hundred, and you get the number of squares of shingles you need to cover the roof and increase your estimation by at least 5%.
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Sometimes You Need To Do A Quick Calculation To See If The Numbers Stack Up We Get It
Our table of roof slope factors will help you do the maths when it comes to roof areas, sheet length and hip length. Remember, these methods are for quick estimating purposes only. Accurate measurements must be taken from the actual roof frame before ordering roofing and rainwater products.
As an example, take a typical hipped roof where all four roof sections have the same slope and all hips are of equal length.
Do You Need A Roof Replacement Or Repair
With years of combined experience in residential roofing, roof repair and commercial roofing, you can rest assured your roof is in good hands.
Our experienced and knowledgeable roofing contractor team is comprised of skilled staff and roofers who are educated in the latest roofing technologies.
Our goal is to deliver excellent craftsmanship on each project performed.
Signs You Need a Roof Replacement or Repair:
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General Features Of Roof Square Footage Calculations
Mostly a roof has an irregular shape, and many people have know any idea how to perform the calculation. There is nothing scary, you just need to divide the entire surface into individual shapes and to calculate each separately, and then to sum everything.
If you only have a roof view on a paper, it is necessary to know its slope angle, and after receiving the projection area, to determine required materials for the actual space, this number has to be multiplied by cosine of the roof slope.
If you decide to calculate the roof space by yourself, be sure to take into account that any material lies overlap and add 10-15% for waste. If the structure is complex, it is advised to add up to 20% of the waste.
How To Calculate The Roof Area Of A Building
Roof width x roof slope height = half roof area
Take this example of a perfectly square house with 76m² floor space, a 45° pitched roof and a 2.35m roof height. The roof slope height is 6.98m. Please note: if you are working out how many roof tiles you need, this calculation assumes there is no chimney or other section of the roof not covered by tiles.
The length of the roof is 8.7m for this square house, as 8.7m x 8.7m is 76m² . The roof slope height is 6.98m. So, for our example the half roof area is as follows: 8.7m x 6.98m = 60.73m². Because this is only one half of the roof, we will need to double this number to find the entire roof area .
With the above information, it is possible to work out how much insulation you may need, how many roof vents youll need to install, and how many roof tiles to purchase.
If youre unsure on any of the above or your roof is not the classic gable roof, please consult a professional installer so that you can make informed decisions. Alternatively, contact our helpline on 01752 692 760 and we will be able to help you with your calculation.
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Square Footage Of A House
For most people, the gross floor area or gross living area of a home is what theyre thinking when they hear square footage.
Heres how to calculate your square footage:
Sketch a floor plan of the homes interior.
Draw each floor separately, and dont include unfinished areas, patios, porches and exterior staircases.
Break down the house into measurable rectangles.
The more rectangles the better. This takes the guesswork out of rooms or hallways that dont have perfectly flush walls.
Measure the length and width of each rectangle.
Round your measurements off to the nearest 0.5 linear foot.
Calculate the area of each section.
Multiply the rectangles length by its width to get the area in square feet. Write this number down in the corresponding space on your sketch.
Add up the total area.
Sum up the square feet of each rectangle to measure the total square footage of the house. Round the total off to the nearest square foot.
Roof Measurements Slope Rise Run Areahow Are Roof Rise Run Area Or Slope Measured Or Estimated Roof Slope Specifications By Roofing Type How To Use A Framing Square For Rafter Cuts
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Roof measurement methods:
Here we describe various methods for measuring all roof data: roof slope or pitch, rise, run, area, and other features.
We include on-roof measurements, roof measurements or estimates that can be made from ground level, and several neat tricks using a folding ruler to measure roof angle or slope.
This article shows how simple measurements can give the roof area without having to walk on the roof surface. This article series gives clear examples just about every possible way to figure out any or all roof dimensions and measurements expressing the roof area, width, length, slope, rise, run, and unit rise in inches per foot.
We also provide an ARTICLE INDEX for this topic, or you can try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need.
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