If you need roof shingles estimate then you have to know the size of your roof. Measure the area of the roof as accurately as possible. The cost of roofing includes the cost of the materials and labor costs. With measurements in hand you can make more reliable and accurate assessment of costs and also decide whether it is worth doing the job yourself or hiring professional roofing contractors.

There are variety of shapes as far as roofs are concerned. To get an accurate measurement draw your roof design as accurately as possible on paper to a reduced scale. Roofs can be flat, gabled, sloped and so on. For ease of measurement reduce the roof to squares, rectangles and triangles.

Now get somebody to measure all the lengths and breadths.The formulae to measure these areas are simple and straightforward. Calculate the areas of each of these component shapes. Add them up to get the area of your roof.

Roof shingles estimate will be the area of the roof multiplied by the cost of the shingles. To the area of the roof you will need to add a little more to get an accurate estimate of the cost. The reason for this is because the roofing shingles will overlap with each other when laid. You will need to make provision for this overlap and order extra shingles.

An expert roof layer will be able to make exact assessment of roofing shingles requirement. On average a 100 square feet of area will need 4-5 bundles of roofing shingles for complete coverage. The first row, ridge and valleys and other unusual projections will need more than 4-5 bundles per 100 square feet. Fixing the roofing shingles will need nails to keep them in place. Different shingles will need different number of nails. In your estimate add the cost of nails.

There are certain areas where flashing will be used here you will need to take linear measurements. These will be around chimneys, air vents, skylights and other such components. One more thing that you need to be aware of is that older shingles may need to be removed. Some contractors will charge a flat rate to remove them and others will charge you on basis of sheet of shingles removed.

Labor costs are the most variable if you consider the prices around the country. This keeps changing depending on where you live. Different roofing websites have roofing calculators to help compute the costs fast and easy. You also have to figure out how much it will cost to dump the old debris once your roofing project is over and done with.

From the above discussion it will clear that doing an accurate roof shingles estimate is not easy at all. It needs a little patience and discipline to arrive at a reasonably accurate figure. You might need help from experts to figure this out. You can ask for help on experts forums and discussion boards. Once this is done you will have a reasonable number to base your decision on about how much and type of shingles to buy.