# Best way to measure steep roofs?



## Just a Roofer (Jan 9, 2009)

You get the call for an estimate, great! right until you pull up on what i call a nightmare potential job. :furious: How do you guys go about measuring a chopped up valley induced, dormers, 10/12 or more if you can't or wont get up there.

Do you guesstimate? I always come pretty close to square footage but was wondering if someone had a trusted for sure kind of way.


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## mnjconstruction (Oct 5, 2008)

Bring your top roofer with you! Let him get up there and measure it!


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## outlaw (Jan 7, 2009)

I just did a 54 sq. cut-up Mcmansion. I went up on the roof and carefully looked at each section. Being each section was only 2-5 sq. it was easy to estimate without ever using a tape measure. 

I was right on the money with my estimate:clap:


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## dougger222 (Jan 29, 2004)

I guess only real roofers measure steep piglets? 

On piglets I like to bring a helper. All my roofs get diagramed very well as most are for insurance companies. That being said unless you measure every valley, ridge, step flashing, gutter apron, drip edge, etc you will lose money.

This past Fall I measured the most cut up tear off I've ever seen. The majority of the 7-8/12 but it had four saddles on it. I did the measuring and drew the diamgram by myself. When I came up with 48.02sq off I decided to compare that to what the female adjuster had figured. For the first time other than a two or four sided gable roof we were dead on. her number was 48.02sq off!

One trick I learned measuring alone is to bring up sidewalk chaulk and write the measurements on the roof top. After I draw the roof I simply go around the roof and write then numbers down.

Another trick to measure very steep roofs is to measure all the walls from the gound and add in for overhange. After the two points connect go on the roof and measure the valleys, ridges, and rakes.

When you measure 200 roofs a year you learn some tricks!


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## Travis (Dec 20, 2006)

I have found that Xactimate sketch is the best tool for estimating all roofs.(simple or complex)You can do it from the ground if you want(I prefer to get on every one), but as long as you know the pitch, it is easy to to do on xactimate sketch. I absolutely love it. Very accurate.


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## SLSTech (Sep 13, 2008)

I think it was Ed that originally posted this https://www.eagleview.com/how_it_works.html --- check out Tier 4 house - the only bad thing is it won't tell you about the sheathing (I haven't used them yet...) I would think that your time & a helpers could be better spent on other items

The other item for the OP - every time I get a call for a place (even if I think I know where its at) I pull the address up - you can zoom in with satellite view & see how chopped up the roof is, the open space around it, etc...


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## JonM (Nov 1, 2007)

*The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides...:thumbup:*


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

I throw the gauntlet down and can measure any sloped roof from the ground. I do get up on as many as possible, mostly to impress the customer and set myself apart from the compitition, but other than that there is usually no need. Using simple algebra, you only need ground measurements anyways to get exact roof top dimensions. You can get slope charts from your manufacturer, every one of them have it. I like GAF's the best because they don't include for waste, they allow me to do that. 

If you are having a hard time getting the roof outline, use a satelite photo to aid you.


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## neolitic (Apr 20, 2006)

There's always the old 
"tennis-ball-on-the-end-
of-a-100'-tape."
There was even a guy here once
who tried to sell that.
Like the other guys said though,
simple math will get you there.
OC used to give away a plastic
pitch gauge that works really well.


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## Just a Roofer (Jan 9, 2009)

neolitic said:


> There's always the old
> "tennis-ball-on-the-end-
> of-a-100'-tape."
> There was even a guy here once
> ...


That seems like a pretty good idea in certain situations, never tried but may in the future.

I too agree that the customer feels better when you are up there to get a closer look at things whether you know some is bad or not, the homeowner will take your word more confident if you are up there.


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## outlaw (Jan 7, 2009)

I never was good with math. The teacher kept saying pie are square and I kept telling her no. Pie are round:smartass:


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

SLSTech said:


> I think it was Ed that originally posted this https://www.eagleview.com/how_it_works.html --- check out Tier 4 house - the only bad thing is it won't tell you about the sheathing (I haven't used them yet...) I would think that your time & a helpers could be better spent on other items
> 
> The other item for the OP - every time I get a call for a place (even if I think I know where its at) I pull the address up - you can zoom in with satellite view & see how chopped up the roof is, the open space around it, etc...


There is now a competitor out that also provides the Xactimate take off as part of the premium priced package.

There are better ones though. One is Free that you can sketch the outer perimeter and then just use the pitch factor and Hip/Ridge/Valley factors. Another one will be out soon, which is about 1/2 price of Eagle View and the new competitor. I will keep you guys updated.

Ed


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## Just a Roofer (Jan 9, 2009)

Ed the Roofer said:


> There is now a competitor out that also provides the Xactimate take off as part of the premium priced package.
> 
> There are better ones though. One is Free that you can sketch the outer perimeter and then just use the pitch factor and Hip/Ridge/Valley factors. Another one will be out soon, which is about 1/2 price of Eagle View and the new competitor. I will keep you guys updated.
> 
> Ed


Yes Ed, please do! I have played around with google earth & zillow.com just to kind of get an idea of what i'm going to look at but i was never able to get any kind of accurate measurement of that. Is it even possible to get the correct pitch of the roof from aerial views?


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## red_cedar (Mar 30, 2005)

I try to measure everthing from the ground regardless of pitch, type of material. What I find somewhat odd is how measuring from the ground and measuring from the roof seems to be dependant on the material. 
No one I know measures from the roof for metal roofing. Yet asphalt shingle guys mostly measure from the roof.

For measuring I get the perimeter then use the multiplier for a total. With the perimeter and multiplier one could get all the ridges, valleys, hips for the job and be pretty acurate. Simple mathamatical calculations.


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## dougger222 (Jan 29, 2004)

It takes some practice to be good at writing accurate estimates with Sketch. See a lot of adjuster who don't know how to use it and are either very short or very strong on the squares. The biggest problems is not getting the pitch and overhange right.

My lumber yard has plastic see through pitch gauges made by a truss company. They work good on most jobs but some jobs they just don't work such as cut up hip roofs. Never seen an adjuster pull out any form of measuring the pitch of the roof other than an actual gauge with needle. One roof the see through gauge read 5/12 but with a gauge on the shingles it read 8/12.

If you measure from the ground only I could see the possibility of being short on air vents or plumbing vents. Could also see the dreaded knock on the home owners door with your hand out stating you need more money because you found a bunch of bad wood. A good contractor may not give a price to replace bad wood prior to starting a job but at least will let the home owner know that they will more than likely have to replace some bad wood which will incure some additional charges.

Heard of only one adjuster who split the cost of Eagleview with a contractor to measure a roof. It was a 80sq 12/12 I guess.


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## buildpinnacle (Sep 2, 2008)

Travis said:


> I have found that Xactimate sketch is the best tool for estimating all roofs.(simple or complex)You can do it from the ground if you want(I prefer to get on every one), but as long as you know the pitch, it is easy to to do on xactimate sketch. I absolutely love it. Very accurate.


Ditto. Very easy onced learned and very accurate. Insurance companies wouldn't use it if it didn't figure to the decimal.


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

Here is a free one that does the horizontal footprint that I just found.

http://measurefromouterspace.com/

It takes a little time figuring out how to do it, but you have to do the length first and copy/paste that measurement into the calculations and then the width and do the same, then hit calculate and it gives you the footprint square footage.

For cut up roofs with a lot of bump outs, you would have to do this for every square or rectangular field and then add them up.

Ed


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## CHB70 (Apr 22, 2006)

Ed,

That is a nifty little tool.

Thank You


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## MrRoofer (Sep 21, 2008)

With any roof it's pretty easy; length x width x pitch = area. 

However I always at the least set up a ladder to check for extra layers...those extra layers will bite you otherwise, and those extra layers seem a lot more common to find on steep roofs than shallow pitchers. A lot of times rake edges are cut off when layering over so eyeballing them from the ground in fact usually does not work . I use a gauge with a needle to measure pitch - no messing around there, and for 20$ they're cheap, plus the magnet holds 'em to my clipboard pretty good. Of course with thicker profiled roofing material it's best to measure pitch from the underside of the rake (fascia board) but hip roofs this isn't always possible, so some guesstimation comes into play at times.

Being a roofer though, there is not many roofs I haven't been able to get up onto and measure, steep or otherwise. I think also it goes a long way towards seperating yourself from the competitors who dont go up there, and haved experienced commentary from some homeowners to that effect. Remeber kids...first impressions are everything.

I also happen to enjoy the view :cheesygri

If you cannot get up there, the ol 3 tabs work great for counting, I will miss them when they are trully phased out.

And, finally, for those trully impossible roofs to get to (we don't use 60' ladders anymore) nothing are as handy as a really good set of....






































BINOCULARS!!!!


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