Usually, your roof slope (or pitch) measurement will probably be included together with your roofing estimate if you find yourself on the lookout for a contractor to put in, restore, or substitute your roof. Nevertheless, you might be all in favour of studying learn how to measure the pitch of your roof by yourself. This may be helpful info to present to contractors with the intention to get extra details about your roof Sealants earlier than an estimate. The excellent news is, slope is comparatively simple to configure. You will want the next provides:
- 2 rulers (or any measuring instrument with the identical items)
- a degree
Roof slopes are measured in items of twelves. You’ll be able to measure with twelve ft or twelve yards, however on this article we are going to use twelve inches. For instance, when a roof has a slope of 5/12, the roof is 5 inches excessive for each 12 inches lengthy. One other manner of stating that is that the roof has an increase of 5 and a run of 12. Figuring that is easy.
First, maintain the ruler horizontal with the underside edge in opposition to the underside of the roof. Use a degree to verify it’s completely horizontal. Then, maintain one other ruler vertically from the twelfth unit. Once more, use the extent to make sure that the ruler is completely vertical. The quantity the place the ruler intersects with the underside of the roof is the highest variety of slope. On this case, it might be 6. This implies the roof has a slope of 6/12.
When your roof slope, you possibly can extra efficiently categorize your roof. There are flat roofs (or low-slope roofs), and steep-slope roofs. Flat roofs are literally not flat. Should you construct a roof to be flat, it is not going to have a strategy to drain and might trigger critical injury to your roof and residential. As a substitute, flat roofs are categorized by having a slope between 2/12 and 4/12. A steep-slope is one above 4/12.
When you have a flat roof, or a low-slope roof, it would be best to use a membrane roofing system reminiscent of TPO or EPDM. Steep-slope roofs require a pitched roofing system reminiscent of architectural shingles, tiles or metallic roofing.
Realizing the slope of your roof may help what sort of roofing system is finest on your roof, in addition to help you as you contact a roofing contractor. Roofing Contractors take pleasure in working with educated purchasers, and should really feel that they may give you extra info and recommendation about your roof for those who already know a bit bit about roofing on the whole. It additionally could serve to present you a ballpark estimate if you find yourself talking to a contractor over the cellphone.