Measure for Roof Shingles
The roof is the top portion of your house or building. This portion of the building is supposed to keep the sun and rain out of the building. Many items such as grass thatch, corrugated metal, clay and tile have been used to cover roofs and protect the buildings where we go about our lives. One of the most popular roofing materials for homes in the 20th century is asphalt or fiberglass shingles. Follow these steps to measure for roof shingles.
Steps
- Draw an overhead view of your roof with lines where the different planes come together. Include all sides of the roof and all shingled sides of any dormers your roof may have.
- Climb a ladder carrying a notepad, a pencil and a measuring tape. This may be easier if you stow these items in a shoulder or hip pack while climbing and so that you have a place to put them down so that they will not slide off the roof.
- Stretch the measuring tape across the length and width of each of the planes of the roof that you delineated in your drawing. This may be easier if you have another person to help you, but most measuring tapes have a hook at the end that will catch on the edge of the roof shingles and allow you to stretch the tape across the rest of the plane.
- Write down on the notepad the measurements that correspond with the different planes of the roof from your drawing.
- Climb back down to the ground when you have completed all of the measurements from all of the different planes of the roof.
- Write the measurements into the corresponding spaces on your drawing to make sure that you obtained all of the information that you need to begin calculations.
- Multiply the length times the width of each plane to find the area of each individual plane.
- Write the area of each plane in the middle of the corresponding plane in your drawing. This will help you visualize whether you have accounted for all of the planes of the roof.
- Add together all the areas for the individual planes of the roof to find the cumulative area of the entire roof.
- Divide the cumulative area by 100 square feet (9.3 sq m) in order to find the number of "squares" of shingles that will be required to cover your roof. Shingles come in pre-cut sizes called "squares" and you can estimate how many you will need in this way by combining your knowledge of your roof's area and the area of the shingle "squares."
Tips
- Add 10% to your total for trim allowances.
- If your roof has not been shingled before, you will also need the same number of "squares" of underlayment. This is not necessary for a roof that is already covered with asphalt.
Things You'll Need
- Roof
- Paper
- Pencil
- Notepad
- Measuring Tape
- Hip or Shoulder Pouch
- Calculator
- Ladder
