how much is a square?

[badgolferman]

Roofer gave me a rough estimate of my roof size. 40 square is the measurement. Is a square equivilent to a bundle of shingles? It seems I can't get the terminology right while making a search.

[Oren]

Good question for the roofer, eh?

No. A bundle is 33.33 square feet. "In most cases, 3 bundles = 1 square."

[RBM]

A square is 100 square feet or 10x10 area

[Ed Pawlowski]

Or four bundles of some premium shingles.

[Doug Miller]

And three bundles of standard three-tab shingles will cover one square.

[Red Green]

"badgolferman" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Others have explained it. 40 square though? Quite a bit of roof. How big a house is this?

[badgolferman]

Roughly 1800 sq. ft. rancher. Does that seem too much?

[Colbyt]

might be.

do you know the pitch?

Over estimating the squares is a common ploy to charge more.

did you have more than one estimate?

[badgolferman]

Not yet. My neighbor was getting his roof replaced today and I asked the Mexicans to give me an estimate.

[Steve Barker DLT]

it would have to be damn steep to make 4000 sq. feet of roof on a 1800 sq. ft of house. Better get some more bids.

s

OR get out a tape measure and measure it up yourself.

s

[Doug Miller]

If one square = 100 sq ft, obviously 40 squares = 4000 sq ft. You tell me if that seems like too much for an 1800-sf house.

[Doug Miller]

Pfffft. Doesn't matter. Even with a 12-pitch roof -- which would be *really* unusual on a ranch house -- it's still too much. More common pitch on a ranch house is about 4; assuming a 1-foot overhang all the way around, and making a small allowance for waste, that means about 24 or 25 squares.

Ayup.

If not... I think he'd better.

[Norminn]

If the pitch is very low, the number might be in range if the roofer simply wrote 40 square when he meant 40 bundles but still not right. I found links to a roof slope site that shows examples, here:

Roofing calculator, here: How much overhang?

[gfretwell]

Sometimes they add extra "squares" if you have valleys since this is extra work and extra material. They also "round up" on any partial square for various sections. My roofer was off by about 20% when I finally counted up the bundles he actually used. I was paying labor only and a flat rate so it wasn't really important to me and they took the unopened bundles back at Lowes.

[Red Green]

"badgolferman" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Yea it does considering the limited info we have. Also, when sq footage of a house is stated for real estate purposes, that is only for living space. Garages and outbuildings are not included.

Roughly, if you had a 24x40 two story, the living space is 24x40x2=1920 sq ft. For roofing purposes it's VERY ROUGHLY 1000 sq ft. Waste, overhangs, pitch, valleys, etc. have to be taken into consideration. 1000 is really way shy. See later in this post. Just trying to give you a feel for it.

This is all very rough but let's say your ranch is ONE story with 1800 sq ft. If it were 24 deep it would have to be 75ft long. Assume a 2ft overhang all around which comes to 75+75-24+24 or about 200 linear ft.

200*2ft wide=400 sq ft for overhang. So far we have 1800 house+400 overhang=2200sf total. Give 10% for waste and 10% for pitch. 2200+220+220 =2640sf (27 square) for one level house with no garage.

Let's add in a 24x24 garage with the same assumptions. garage 24x24=576sf overhang 24x4x2=192sf garage roof total about 775sf waste & pitch add 20% - 775*1.2=930sf (about 10 square)

So the house and garage is 2640+930=3570. Now we are talking 36 square which says 40, as a guess, is possible. But if your place is two story then 40 square is way off.

Two story 24x40 with 2ft overhang.

House 24*40=960sf of roofing Overhang (24+24+40+40)*2=256sf waste & pitch (960+256)*1.2=1459sf or 15 square.

Add in that garage and it's 15+10=25 square.

Let's see if I made some stupid blunder here. I'm sure someone will point it out! :-)

[Dick Adams]

I have a 60x30 one story ranch. Based on a square being 100 sq ft, a flat roof would be 18 squares. Figure in 6 ft to the peak and call it less than

20 squares. Than add 4 squares because I don't do these calcs for a living and round it up to 24 squares.

The first four estimates I got were 34, 32, 30, and

30 squares with prices ranging $5,400 to $7,500. Not one of the estimators took out a tape or walked the roof. Everyone of them said there was one layer already on the roof so it was a roof-over. When I said I wanted the roof torn off, they said it was unnecessary and would cost an extra $1,000 to $1,200. I knew there were two layers already on it.

A roof replacement was not an immediate need so I waited a year. Finally someone walked the roof. said it was 24 squares, already had two layers so it was a tear-off, had two soft-spots which would probably need new underlayment, made a few other suggestions, and priced it at $4,650.

It's the difference between dealing with a roofer and dealing with a commissioned sales person for a roofing company.

Dick

[clare]

Square is 10X10. Generaly 3 bundles to the square if I remember from the last roof I did.

[retired54]

Dick:

Where did you get these estimates?

Thanks

Olddog

[Sharp Dressed Man]

My experience dealing with many general contractors and roofing subs/companies over the years is that roofers are about the bottom of a generally rancid barrel. Most all of them have a bad attitude and far too many of them do a poor job to boot-- especially flashing around corners, valleys and the chimney.

I was doing a major add-on some years ago in suburban Atlanta and the GC had the roofing materials delivered-- except the nails for some reason. When the roofer arrived ( almost three hours late, he said he was walking off the job because he was only contracted for labor, not materials. I told him to go up to Home Depot (3 miles away) and get what he needed and I'd reimburse him. He said he wouldn't do that. Instead of letting the loser walk, I foolishly offered to go get the nails myself which I did.

He ended up doing a piss-poor job--- we had leaks and several other problems. The GC had the roof redone out of his pocket. Good for him....I guess he never used that roofer again. Not sure where he ever got him from. Most of the other subs on the job were OK--- except the HVAC...but that's another story...

[SteveB]

It's a bitch when you know more than the estimator. You know there's two layers, and they swear there's one. Any idiot who says it is okay to roof over old shingles isn't a company worth hiring. It can be done, but they never see the under side, and therefore don't know if there's any repairs or replacement that needs to be done.

Hire the most reputable company in town. TELL then what you want done. Pay the money and enjoy your new roof.

Steve