Concept site Ridgecap Roofing is a fictional roofer, designed and built by Patrick Bushe to show what I make for roofers. Fictional, by Patrick Bushe

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Free inspection

Estimate my roof.

The footprint of the house, the pitch and the material. You’ll see the roof area, the squares, how many courses go on and a sample price range.

1. Material

Pace it off outside along the walls. Leave out a detached garage; it gets its own estimate.

3. Overhang past the walls
4. Pitch inches of rise per 12 inches across

Many ranch houses are 4 or 5 in 12. A roof you can walk on without bracing is 6 in 12 or less.

5. Roof shape
6. Layers on the roof now

Look at the edge of the roof from a ladder: two rows of shingle edges stacked means two layers.

Brown architectural asphalt shingles, close up

Squares, courses and waste.

  • A square is 100 square feet of roof. Shingles usually come three bundles to a square.
  • A course is one row. Architectural shingles show about 5⅝ inches each, so a 17-foot slope takes around 37 of them.
  • Waste is the shingles cut off at edges and valleys: about 10% on a gable roof, 15% on a hip roof.
  • Pitch makes the roof bigger than the house: a 6 in 12 roof is about 12% larger than the floor under it.