Calculating the roofing materials needed for your home or business requires an understanding of the geometry and the ability to complete some basic math problems. For basic roof designs, this is a fairly easy task to accomplish. For roofing designs that are more complex, it is a bit more challenging and requires you to complete several calculations to make your determination. These calculations will give you the total surface area of the roof in square feet.
Things You'll Need
- Tape measure or measuring wheel
Video of the Day
On a note pad, sketch out the various geometric shapes that comprise the overall shape of your various roof surfaces. For simple roofs such as a ranch style home, you will likely have two rectangles with which to deal. For more complex roofs, you will likely have several different geometric shapes including squares, rectangles, and triangles.
If you can safely get onto your roof with your pencil, pad, and a measuring device, you begin measuring the outside dimensions of each geometric shape that you have sketched onto your pad. Be sure to write down the dimensions for each side of your shape as you measure them. You will use those measurements to calculate the square footage for each shape. Once you've made those calculations, you'll add them together to determine the total surface area of your roof. See the references below for the formulas to accomplish this task.
If you are unable to safely get onto the roof to do the hands-on measurements, there is another way to determine the square footage of your roof with reasonable accuracy. You can calculate your roof pitch in several ways, the easiest is to go into the attic. After measuring the outside dimensions of your home, enter the attic. Holding a level parallel to the floor so that the 12-inch mark is against the rafter; make sure the bubble indicates level condition. Using your tape measure, find the distance from the front edge of your level up to the roof rafter to determine the rise. The Service Magic Roof Calculator at servicemagic.com shows a diagram and performs the calculations based upon your measurements.
Once you have determined the overall square footage of your roofing system, a simple division problem determines how many "squares" makes up your roof. A square in roofing terminology is 100 square feet (a 10-foot by 10-foot section). You will typically order your roofing shingles in "squares." Divide your overall square footage calculation by 100 to determine how many squares of materials you'll need to complete the roof.