During roofing repair or installation, it is really quite important to know the area of your roof’s surface. Knowing this measurement allows a roofing contractor to give you more accurate quotes or bids on the work they need to do on your house top regardless of whether it is roofing maintenance or repair.
It is important to know this measurement because it is the number that you have to go by when you purchase the materials need for your roof. If you don’t know your roof’s area just yet, don’t worry. You can always call a roofing contractor to do the measuring for you.
How exactly does the area of your roofing get calculated?
Roof Area
First let’s talk about area. The definition of area is the measurement of a given surface, basically the size of the surface of your roof. This measurement can be achieved in a number of different ways.
The easiest way to calculate your roof’s area is to use an online calculator where you can simply input your roof’s measurements that includes base length, base width and pitch to get the result.
How To Measure A Roof
- Get the measurements of your roof’s pitch and the square footage of your home. This calculation will only use square footage directly covered by your roof, so if you have a multilevel home, use only square footage for one of the floors.
- Divide your roof pitch by 12 and then square this number. For example, if your pitch angle is 4, divide it by 12 to get 1/3. 1/3 squared is 1/9.
- Add 1, then take the square root. 1 + 1/9 = 10/9. Square root of 10/9 = 1.0541.
- Multiply this number by the square footage of 1 floor of your house. A 2-story house with 2,700 sq. ft. with 1,350 sq ft per floor means you multiply 1,350 by 1.0541. The result = 1,423 sq ft.
The end result of the above calculation will give you the amount of roofing that you will need for either roofing maintenance or roofing repair work. Note that the above process will give solid estimates for simple single slope roofs or a simple gable roof with only one pitch.
Roofs That Are More Complicated
More complex roofs with multiple angles of pitch requires a roofing contractor to break the calculation down into each square footage covered by each pitch, then add the results together to get your total roof area.
It is truly a good idea to get your roof’s area because it’s quite a handy number to have, regardless of whether you need the measurement of your house top for roofing maintenance or if you need it for a roofing repair.
Taking it yourself shouldn’t be a problem, but if you find yourself having issues with it or if your roof is too complicated, always remember you can ask a roofing contractor for help if you have trouble getting the measurement yourself!
