How Do I Measure My Roof

How to calculate your roof square footage.

How do i measure my roof.

To measure a roof start by measuring the length and width of the building s exterior walls and multiplying them to get the area. Once you see how surprisingly close the end result numbers are to each other you can then decide whether or not to retire your ladder with confidence. Note the vertical distance on the tape measure and write this value down. Make sure to document the number of chimneys.

It is often compared to slope but is not exactly the same. In the united states a run of 12 inches 1 foot is used and pitch is measured as the rise of the roof over 12 inches. Start your free trial. On your next roofing estimate i suggest that you compare the total square footage number you get by actually measuring a roof to the number you end up with after using these 2 little calculations.

Measure the vertical distance from roof to level. First measure the length and width of each surface on the roof then multiply these values to get the square footage of that surface. This can make it even safer to do your measuring and it also removes a level of guessing to your calculation. To calculate the size of the roof you need to measure the size of the roof as if it were flat 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.

Roof pitch is the measurement of a roof s vertical rise divided by its horizontal run. Use the step by step guide below to accurately measure your roof and estimate roofing costs. To measure the roof pitch you ll need an 18 or 24 inch level a tape measure and a pencil. The google maps area calculator is not 100 accurate.

Extend it upward so it is perpendicular to the level. The roof area is simply 114x18x2 plus 30x18x2 giving 5184 square feet which is perfectly adequate for estimating materials. Knowing the pitch of your roof is useful when designing an addition installing skylights or cutting new rake boards. Similarly if you using the area calculator tool to measure a roof with multiple levels you should do the individual section separately.

Hold the 0 mark of the tape measure against the roof. After measuring the area of the footprint you can estimate the actual roof area based on the angle of the roof. Move the tape measure along the the roof until it hits the level at exactly the 12 inch mark. First measure 12 inches from one end of the level and make a.

The roof area for a hip end is the same as for a gable end the intersection is equivalent to a hip slightly conservative so there is usually no need to consider triangles when measuring a roof. The first of which is that you don t even have to go up on the roof.