How To Measure Your Roof In Squares

If you are replacing your entire roof you will need to purchase shingles in 50 squares to sufficiently cover your 5 000 square foot roof.

How to measure your roof in squares.

If your roof is 5 000 square feet you will have 50 squares. Measuring the area of your roof isn t the simplest process. Steep roofs measure your house at ground level then add in the roof s overhang for greater accuracy. A home s roof is measured in squares.

Make a sketch of your roof before you go out to measure it. You can get a decent estimation this way. However if you feel you can safely go up on your roof measure each section starting at the top of the ridge and going down to the bottom of the slope. The combination of these sections will give your the square footage of your roof.

Roofing is measured in squares. In cases where a roof has a complex shape such as in the image to the right measuring the dimensions and areas of each part of the roof to calculate total area will result in a more accurate measurement of area. Things you will need steel tape measure. Obviously you want to stay safe while still getting a close estimate.

First measure the length and width of each surface on the roof then multiply these values to get the square footage of that surface. One way to get an estimate is to take the square footage or meterage of the building and multiply it by the slope factor pitch of your roof. The key is to be as accurate as possible since falling short or an overage could mean thousands of dollars when planning your roofing budget. The calculator cannot account for complex shapes based on a measurement of square footage alone.

To figure out your roof s area a simple geometry can be used. Make sure to document the number of chimneys skylights or other obstructions and include dormers in your measurements. Flat roofs if your roof is flat or has no more than a 3 in 12 pitch you can calculate its total square footage by simply multiplying the length by the width. Multiply the number of roofing squares for a medium pitch roof by 1 12 to 1 25 or by 1 3 to 1 42 for a high pitch roof to get the square roof area.

Each square is 100 square feet.