How to use a Roofing Material Calculator

Roof Repair - Sep 24,2012 - No Comment

A roofing material calculator is a very helpful tool. When calculating the price of materials for your new roof, a roofing material calculator allows you to do this quickly. It enables you to estimate the size of your roof and the required roofing materials and the cost. To do a calculation, simply enter your roofing dimensions, choose roof type and pitch and it will give you the cost for 30-year asphalt roofing shingles.

Measure your roof from the ground up, adding any overhangs to the total roof size. Estimate the roof pitch (slope) and enter the dimensions and pitch into the calculator. State whether it is a Gable roof, Hip roof or Mansard roof. Only rectangular roofs can be used in these calculators, without valleys or dormers.

There are many roofs with irregular shapes, and it is not possible to account for them within the scope of these calculators. If your roof has an irregular shape or is rather cut up, try using the factor multiplier (roof difficulty setting in the calculator) for a more accurate estimation.

Roofing Material Calculator: How Roofing Materials Prices are Calculated:

The results of the calculation of roofing materials, include the roof size in square feet as well as a detailed list of the required materials need for a new roof installation. It will include the following:

Roofing Shingles – price per square (100 sq. Ft.) – three bundles of shingle in one square
Roofing Underlayment – 30 lb Felt, Ice and Water Shield along the roof eaves
Drip Edge
Miscellaneous accessories – nails, pipe boots,
Step flashing (for chimney flashing),
Roofing caulking
Ridge Vent
Ridge cap shingles
3-tab shingles for starter course

All roofing prices are based on what national building materials retailers such as Home Depot and Lowe’s charge for roofing materials. Prices are virtually the same here as trade prices where most contractors buy their materials. In fact, Home Depot’s price on GAF Timberline architectural shingle is actually lower than most trade roof supply places.

The following types of shingles – Three tab asphalt shingles (25 year), 30 year common architectural shingles and 50 year asphalt shingles will all have prices provided.

There are four major asphalt roofing shingle manufacturers in the USA/Canada, and the prices are averaged among them. There is also a waste factor to be taken into account for each type of roof: Gable, Hip and Mansard’s roof waste factors are 7.5 per cent. Mansard roofs have a flat roof in the center and often windows along the Mansard side, so adjustments need to be made to the waste factor at some point, as well as add an option in the calculator to select the number of Mansard roof windows.

Roofing Cost Calculator – Find The Cost Of Roofing Using This Tool

Roof Shingles - Feb 27,2012 - No Comment

Most roofing cost calculator tools available today are web-based. Seeing the growing popularity of smart phones and needs of professionals to access these tools on the go – many of the tools developers have come up smart applications that can be downloaded on the mobile phone and used by roofing contractors when at the client site. This is invaluable help in closing quick sales.

Not just professionals, even people who are in the market to build new homes or those who wish to alter their roofs or relay them find roofing cost calculator an great aid because of the ease of calculations for different specifications. For instance you check the cost of roofing for different roofing materials. You don’t have to get the quotes from a professional or invite one over to know how much it would cost to replace your roof. If you are just considering things and are not yet decided about changing or relaying the roof then it would be big waste of time and effort for the roofing contractor to make the trip to your home. Instead the homeowner can themselves do the preliminary estimations.

There are other advantages to using a roofing cost calculator. It helps in making assessments about the amount of roofing material to order, the ball park figure about labor costs, the cost of disposal of old roof and so on. This will help the homeowner with being assured that he/she is not being taken for a ride when roofing contractor gives estimates about roof cost and so on. Neither will they have to fear that they are ordering more than the required amount of materials.

The tool is simple and straightforward. Any homeowner can be trained to use in less than half hour or so. The prices of roofing materials, the cost of labor will have to entered into the tool and saved for use whenever needed. You can take the help of a roofing contractor or local trade journal to find the prevailing market rates for these and enter it into the tool. Next measure the dimensions of the roof, the length and breadth of different planes in the roof measured in square feet should be entered into the roofing cost calculator.

Once this data is enter the roofing cost calculator comes up with the such numbers of bundles of shingles to order, the number of rolls of underlayment to be bought, quantity of felt paper to buy and so on. This is handy to make quick comparisons and also price estimations. You can cross verify any numbers quoted by your roofer or the local hardware guy where you are ordering material.

Not just the major materials a roofing cost calculator is also useful in finding the cost of other items needed in installing a roof like ridge vent, turbine, drip edge, ridge cap, roof underlayment, flashing, gutter and lot’s more. Ice and water shield is for example used to prevent ice dams and is a requirement in many states by law. Hip and ridge caps can be fashioned out of roofing shingles by roofers themselves but, since the warranty becomes invalid if the ridge caps supplied by company are not used, calculating its cost is a big help too.

You need galvanized nails for the roof of one inch or more size for regular shingles and bigger sizes for flashing and other areas. Several boxes of nails will be needed for the roofing job. Your roofing cost calculator will give you an accurate number of boxes of nails to buy for the job. Else, you might run out of nails in the middle of the roofing job and need to run to the supplies store for more.

By putting up the roofing cost calculator online it’s makes the job of service providers like real estate agents, insurance adjusters, roofing contractors and others easy. The homeowner themselves arrive at the numbers using your tool and save you time from having to visit their homes. They can calculate the number by tapping a few numbers into their phone or laptop and get the valuations needed almost instantaneously. There is no time wasted in going to the client site and then going back to home or office to finish the calculations. The contractors job of material estimation is also made easy. The mind numbing task of counting ridges is completely eliminated. The distinctive styles of roofing are now estimated rapidly by counting the partitions.

Remember that materials prices, labors costs will vary with where you live. So, you need to keep your roofing material cost tool updated if you are going to use in a different location than your local area.

Roofing Material Calculator To Help Estimate Cost Of Roofing

Roof Shingles - Feb 12,2012 - No Comment

With the aid of a roofing material calculator you can estimate the price you need to pay for different types of roofs. A shingles roof may be the cheapest but a slate roof is elegant and attractive. The roof not only protects but also makes a style statement. It draws the eyes of the beholder towards your home. Paired with attractive exteriors and surroundings you home will the cynosure of all eyes.

Wood shake shingles are another option and you can easily find the cost using your roofing material calculator. Though wood roofs are beautiful option and present an old world charm unmatched by any other commercial product there are certain very serious disadvantages. Wood is susceptible to mold, fungus and fire. This means you have to replace the roof often. Wood is expensive and also difficult to maintain. Compared to this asphalt shingles are simpler to lay, are cheap and last a couple of decades.

No wonder that asphalt is the most commonly used roofing material in the United States. It’s light weight, simple to lay, easy to handle and is resistant to fire, wind and impact. There are several new types of shingles available that are tougher, thicker and last longer. With dimensional shingles you also get an additional degree of attractiveness as the shingles no longer appear flat and lifeless. Like real life slate and wood these shingles have lines and other design elements to make them stand out.

Other roofing options can be explored with help of the roofing material calculator. Tiles and metal are options that are extremely long-lasting and attractive to boot. The price is slightly more compared to asphalt shingles. But, since they last much longer and have better resistance to fire and wind, these qualify for lower insurance premiums on your home insurance and you get to save quite bit on roof replacement and roof repairs costs over time. Metal is lighter than asphalt shingles but tiles are heavier. You might need to strengthen the structure of the roof to take the extra load of tiles.

Costing Using Roofing Material Calculator:

Here are some costs arrived at by using the roofing material calculator. The cost of asphalt shingles for a single story ranch style home with a gentle slope costs from $800 to $4000 dollars for homes that are $1500 to $2100 square feet in area depending on quality of materials. To remove the old roof and getting the roofing installed professionally you will have to additionally around $500 to $4000 for the same home depending on where you live and materials used.

Take wood shake or shingles, these are no doubt elegant and long lasting. But, in moist weather conditions they are a nightmare to maintain because wet weather encourages the growth of mold, mildew and fungus. The wood needs special treatment to prevent fungus and other growth. This can be expensive in addition to cost of shingles which costs $7000 to $20000 for 1800 to 2100 square feet area ranch style home. If you would to do the same home in fire proof materials made of recycled rubber or molded plastic of high quality then the cost is about $8000 to $21000 or more.

Another beautiful roofing material are tiles. A rough estimate using roofing material calculator gives the following values for a simple style home as above. The prices for a concrete tile home is around $7650 to $21000. Ceramic tiles cost from $12000 to $22000 for standard shapes and colors. For the premium ceramic tiles you will pay anywhere between $17000 to $60000 both for the custom shapes and complex installation.

Compare this against metal roofs using the roofing material calculator. Metal roof is light weight, durable, resistant to fire and is not affected by fungus and does not rot like wood. It does not break like tiles on impact. A long-lasting roof this costs about $5000 to $22000 for a simple ranch style home of similar size as above. Let’s look at aluminum which costs from 12000 to 24000 dollars. Coppers is more expensive at $26000 to $40000 dollars.

A slate roof is much more expensive even if it is the most long lasting of all roofs. Installing slate roof can set you back by $17000 dollars for the lower end slate shingles to $85000 dollars for more expensive ones for a small home of size 1700 – 2000 square feet. For a larger sized home of size $3000 square feet you can end up paying $120,000 for a high-end slate roof according to your roofing material calculator.

The cost of removal and disposal of old shingles is task whose cost can’t be underestimated. The price for such as calculated by the roofing materials calculator runs into about $1000 dollars. This can be lower or higher depending how far the disposal site is, how difficult it to remove the old shingles and the type of shingles to be removed and disposed off.

Roof Calculator – A Useful Online Tool For Roof Estimates

Roof Repair - Aug 01,2011 - No Comment

A quick and simple way to profit from a free online roof calculator is by employing it to generate roof estimates and compute roofing prices. No matter whether you’re installing an asphalt roof or one with clay tiles or a metal standing seam roof, you’ll first need to determine how much you may have to pay to have it built.

Free online tools like roof calculators are very useful for home owners and roofing professionals like contractors. A roof calculator can reliably estimate the cost of a roofing project when used correctly. You can input factors like roof materials, labor expenses involved in tearing down the current structure and getting rid of all the waste material, as well as the profit a roof contractor may expect to make. Using a roof calculator for budgeting purposes can be of great value to home owners looking to have a new roof fixed or a roof repair for leaks.

So Who Can Benefit From a Roof Calculator?

A roof calculator will come useful for home owners but also for many other roofing pros. People like house inspectors, insurance agents and adjustors, real estate salespersons and the kind use a roof calculator in their jobs. The tool lets them compute roof estimates quickly, and clients love them for the prompt response. Using a roof calculator is simple and fast. You just type in figures into the boxes, click a button, and the magic happens right under your eyes. That’s why roof calculators have caught on and there are many services that even give away a cellphone app that can be used anywhere.

Some savvy roofing contractors and services have created web based roof calculator tools that can be embedded on other websites of affiliates. This generates new leads for their roofing business through potential clients who use their calculators. For the owner of any roofing website, such a tool is helpful in engendering visitor loyalty and delighting their audience. This becomes a true win-win situation.

Roof Calculators Have Some Limitations

Roof calculators are indispensable tools for roofing professionals. But that doesn’t make them infallible or omnipotent. Many roof calculators are designed to cover most major types of roof materials. Prices that are calculated do vary slightly and have a small error rate. Generic and specialty roofing estimates will also differ a bit depending upon location and unique needs. A small degree of variation between what you compute using a roof calculator and the estimate presented to you by a roofing contractor is natural and to be expected.

There are many more ways to benefit from a roof calculator, and they are outlined in this short report that you can read here.

The Real Cost of Metal Roofing Prices

Roof Repair - May 01,2011 - No Comment

What determines the prices of metal roofing? No one seemed to know, until recently. A closely guarded secret of industry insiders and roofing professionals, the cost of a metal roofing system was rarely revealed outside those hallowed confines, leaving hapless home owners to speculate and worry about how much they would be asked to shell out.

Worse, many didn’t know how close to the actual cost the quoted prices were. After all, if one didn’t have a clear breakdown of the costs, there was no way of telling whether or not they were fair.

The Web has changed everything. There’s a short report on this site which exposes the pricing secrets of metal roofing and explains just what drives the cost and why. It’s your peek behind the curtain, and you can take it right now.

The obvious fact that metal roofing is costlier than others to install is broken down and placed into more relevant context that will help you understand how you are actually better off investing more cash on a good installation rather than spending much more on frequent maintenance.

Over the lifetime of your building, a metal roofing system will cost you less provided you get good quality material and high quality workmanship. Both of them are expensive, so you’ll end up spending more money initially. But learn more about what determines the price of metal roofing here.

Tag Archives: roofing calculator

How to use a Roofing Material Calculator

Roofing Cost Calculator – Find The Cost Of Roofing Using This Tool

Roofing Material Calculator To Help Estimate Cost Of Roofing

Roof Calculator – A Useful Online Tool For Roof Estimates

So Who Can Benefit From a Roof Calculator?

Roof Calculators Have Some Limitations

The Real Cost of Metal Roofing Prices