How to Measure for Asphalt Shingles
Measure the roof of a house to lay shingles yourself or to check the estimate of a roofing contractor. Asphalt shingles are packaged in bundles. The most common shingles require three bundles to cover 100 square feet of roofing. The total square footage of a roof determines the number of shingle bundles needed. The roof design dictates how the measurements are taken. Measure your roof according to its design before ordering roof shingles or signing a roofing contract. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Measure the plane of a flat roof, or planes of a gable roof. Climb onto the roof with an extension ladder and measure the length and width of each plane. Multiply the length of each plane times its width to determine the square footage. A roof plane that measures 30 feet by 60 feet has 180 square feet. Add the totals of each plane to arrive at the total square footage. A gable roof with two 30 by 60 feet planes has 360 total square feet.
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Figure the area of a hip roof with subsections. Measure the length of one eave that is parallel to the apex ridge. Measure the width across the top of the roof from front eave to rear eave. Take such a measurement for every subsection on the roof. Use the eave-to-eave measurement as the width and multiply length times width to get the square footage of each section. Add the totals of each section to figure the total square footage.
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Divide the total square footage by 100 to get a figure for the number of squares on the roof. Each roofing square is a 100 square foot area that requires three bundles of shingles to cover. The gable roof with 360 total square feet has 36 squares, which will need 108 bundles of shingles.
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Use the figure for squares to determine the roofing felt needed for a new roof. Roofing felt, or tar paper, is sold in rolls that typically cover four squares. Divide the number of squares by four to find the number of felt rolls needed. A new roof with 36 squares will need 3 rolls of felt.
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References
- Photo Credit building image by jimcox40 from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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how do you get your measurements? 30 x 60 in 1800 square feet and not 180.
