🏠

Roof Calculator

Roof area, squares, and shingle bundles from your footprint and pitch — plus the rest of the materials.

Roof Style

Footprint & Pitch

Measure the building footprint at ground level, not the slope.

4/12 to 6/12 covers most houses. Not sure? See the pitch table below.

See My Shopping List →
Roof area
1,252 sq ft
1,120 sq ft footprint × 1.118 pitch multiplier
14
squares to order
Includes 10% waste for a gable roof. Order by the square — 1,377 sq ft total.

Your Shopping List

Based on the dimensions on the left — edit them to match your roof and this updates as you type.

1
Roof Harness & Fall Protection Kit

Harness, rope grab, and a ridge anchor — the whole setup, before any material goes up

Tip: Falls are the leading cause of death in roofing. Anything above a single storey or a 6/12 pitch needs this and roof jacks.

42
Architectural Shingles (bundles)

42 bundles = 14 squares at 3 bundles per square

Tip: Buy all bundles in one order. Colour lots vary between batches and a mid-roof switch shows.

Lumberyard or home center — sold by the square, delivered to the kerb
2
Synthetic Underlayment (10 sq rolls)

Goes down before the shingles, over the whole deck

Tip: Synthetic beats felt on a hot roof — it won't wrinkle or tear underfoot.

14
Drip Edge (10 ft pieces)

136 ft of perimeter

Tip: Drip edge goes under the underlayment at the rakes, over it at the eaves.

Home center — ask for roof drip edge, not door drip cap
8
Starter Strip

80 ft of eaves

Tip: Don't substitute cut-up shingles. Starter strip has the sealant in the right place.

Buy with your shingles — match the brand
2
Hip & Ridge Cap (bundles)

40 ft of ridge at ~20 ft per bundle

Buy with your shingles — match the brand
4500
Roofing Nails (galvanized)

~4500 nails at 4 per shingle

Tip: Check your local code — high-wind zones often require 6 nails per shingle, not 4.

1
Roofing Nailer or Hammer Tacker

Hand-nailing a full roof is a two-day job that a nailer does in hours

Before you start

Re-roofing usually needs a permit, and most codes allow only two layers of shingles before a full tear-off. Check with your local building department first. Anything above a 6/12 pitch or a single storey warrants roof jacks and a harness — falls are the leading cause of death in roofing.

Roof Pitch Multiplier Table

A roof is always bigger than the footprint it sits on. Multiply your footprint area by the number for your pitch to get the actual roof area.

PitchMultiplierAngle1,000 sq ft footprint becomes
2/121.0149.5°1,014 sq ft
3/121.03114.0°1,031 sq ft
4/121.05418.4°1,054 sq ft
5/121.08322.6°1,083 sq ft
6/121.11826.6°1,118 sq ft
7/121.15830.3°1,158 sq ft
8/121.20233.7°1,202 sq ft
9/121.25036.9°1,250 sq ft
10/121.30239.8°1,302 sq ft
11/121.35742.5°1,357 sq ft
12/121.41445.0°1,414 sq ft

How to measure your pitch: hold a level horizontally against the roof line, mark 12 inches along it, then measure straight down from that mark to the roof surface. That drop in inches is your rise — a 6 inch drop is a 6/12 pitch.