Have you ever wondered about what goes into making a roof shingles estimate that’ll tell you exactly how many shingles you’ll require for a roofing job? It isn’t too complicated. You can take either of two routes to estimating your roof’s surface area, and then apply a simple formula to arrive at your roof shingles estimate.
Roof Shingles Estimate – Determine The Number of Shingles Needed
Roofing shingles come packed into bundles. You can order them by the bundle, or the square. Shingles are wrapped in plastic or paper and bundled into sizes that are convenient for a single person to carry comfortably. Heavier shingles will contain fewer shingles per bundle, and therefore require more bundles per square. Three bundles of 3-tab shingles typically can cover a square of roof.
When you start a roof shingles estimate, the first thing to do is determine how much of your roof needs to be covered with shingles. This can be estimated using the measurement method, or others like the sheet-count approach. More complex projects and re-roofing require different approaches.
Roof Shingles Estimate by Measurement Method
One surefire way to determine how many bundles of roof shingles you’ll need is to hop up on the top of your building and actually measure each and every plane. If the building is made of rectangular planes, this is a relatively straightforward task. You’ll simply have to measure the length and breadth, and then multiply them together. But with steep roofs, you will not be able to walk on them to carry out the measurements and must rely on more indirect approaches.
First, compute the floor area of your building. Add in a little extra for overhang of your roof. Using a pre-determined formula, and making allowance for the slope (pitch) of your roof, you can multiply the area by a “correction factor” that’s dependent upon the slope of the roof and arrive at a reasonably accurate measurement of the roof area.
Roof Shingles Estimate by Shingle Count Method
If the previous shingles are still intact and haven’t yet been stripped, then you can estimate the roof area through measurements of the eaves on each roof plane. You may even choose to estimate that by counting tabs along the eaves and edges, and keeping in mind that each tab is a foot long.
Once you’re done, count the numbers of rows of shingles from eaves to ridge. Each shingle is exposed for 5 inches, which means a 5 course layer will measure 5X5 inches, or just over 2 feet. Knowing the length and breadth through this computation, you can tell how much of the roof needs to be fixed or installed.
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