Roof Slope Calculator

How To Calculate Your Roof Slope

Roof Slope

When you want to replace or repair your roof, you need to know about the slop of the roof. The reason for this is the simple fact that roof slope can affect the overall cost of replacing or repairing the roof. There are a number of ways that you can calculate the roof slope of your home and you need to be aware of this.

Calculating From The Rafters

If you are going to be calculating the slope of the roof yourself, you should consider doing this from the rafters. Measuring the underside of the roof is actually the most accurate way of calculating the slope of the roof as there are no materials which will create an uneven surface. The rafters that will provide you with the best measurements are the rafter in the attic, the overhang rafter at the end of the roof and the barge rafter which is located to the side of the gable.

Once you have access to the rafters, you will need to place a spirit level against the underside. You should adjust the level so that the bubble is centered on the primary level. You should then locate the 12-inch mark on the level. There are some levels that do not have measurements on them and if you have one of these, you will need to use a tape measure to find this location. You will then have to mark this 12-inch spot on the underside of the rafters.

After marking the spot, you need to measure the vertical distance from this location to the rafter. To do this, you will need to have a tape measure that can be extended perpendicularly to the level. You should place the tape measure at the 12-inch mark and extend it to the rafter directly about it. The level needs to stay in position when you take this measurement to ensure that you are getting the correct measurement.

You will now be able to determine the slope of your roof. To do this, you will need to write down the measurements that you have taken from the rafters. The slope of your roof is the ratio of the vertical distance or rise of the roof to the horizontal distance or run. The horizontal distance in the ratio will be 12 while the vertical distance is the measurement you took from the rafters.

Using An Online Calculator

There are a lot of people who do not want to go into or onto their roof to measure the slope. If you are one of these people, you could use an online calculator to determine this for you. Online calculators will require some measurements of the roof to work.

The measurements that are required will generally be the length and width of the roof. This will allow the calculators to determine that the slope will be. It is important to note that some of these online calculators will determine the slope as a degree and not a ratio. They may also provide you with a slope in percentage format which may not be ideal for your use.

The Difference Between Roof Slope And Pitch

When you look at calculating roof slope, you will notice that a lot of people use the term slope and pitch interchangeably. This is incorrect as they are, theoretically different. This is important to note when you are going to be using an online calculator as it might be determining pitch instead of slope.

The slope of the roof is the ratio of the vertical distance to the horizontal distance. The pitch of the roof is a ratio of the total vertical roof height to the total horizontal distance from one wall to another. This is often stated as a ration of the rise of the roof to the span of the roof.

It is important to note that you will generally not need to know the pitch of your roof when it comes to calculating the costs of replacements or repairs. However, your calculations will be very far off if you use the roof pitch instead of the roof slope when you estimate costs. When talking to a carpenter or roofer, you also need to know which measurement they are looking at.

Know next about the shingle bundle calculator before you start with the shingle roofing.