Typical Roof Pitch Angles

This article series gives clear examples just about every possible way to figure out any or all roof dimensions and measurements expressing the roof area width length slope rise run and unit rise in inches per foot.

Typical roof pitch angles.

Roof pitch is a term describing how steep or flat your roof slope is. In some areas building codes require a minimum slope. Roof pitch is used to describe the slope or angle of the roof. Buffalo new york and montreal quebec canada specify 6 in 12 a pitch of approximately 26 6 degrees.

Roof pitch refers to the measurement of the slope of a roof and you express this as a ratio. Divide the first part of the ratio by 12 to work out the pitch. This table lists all of the common roof slopes expressed as rise run roof angle roof slope slope grade and walk ability. Typical roof pitch is actually the measure of the roof s slope expressed in ratio.

Some well defined standards are followed while deciding about roof pitch but in actuality the slope depends upon the type of roofing material and climatic conditions of the area. The roof pitch is important in determining the appropriate installation method and how much roofing material will be needed. What degree angle is a 12 12 pitch roof. Roof pitch or slope is a measure of vertical rise to horizontal run expressed in inches per foot.

Roof pitch is expressed as a ratio of the amount of the roof s vertical rise over a corresponding horizontal distance called the run pitch is written assuming a run of a foot or 12 inches so the ratio describes how much the roof rises for every foot of its run. In other words it can be expressed as numerical measure of steepness of the roof. Citation needed carpenters frame rafters on an angle to pitch a roof. Two most common methods 4 12 or 4 12 are used for marking the pitch of a roof.

Find the inverse tangent of the pitch to find the angle in degrees. Roof pitch angle and slope factor charts. Pitch angle incline slope they all can be used to refer to the steepness of a roof. In the roofing trade the go to term is pitch and it is expressed in terms of 12 inches so the pitch of a roof is determined by how many inches the slope rises for every 12 inches it runs horizontally.

This measurement is best done on a bare roof because curled up roofing shingles will impair your measurement. The picture below shows the pitch of a 7 12 roof slope meaning that for 12 of horizontal measurement roof run the vertical measurement roof rise is 7. To convert between american roofing ratios and pitch degrees follow these steps. The high steeply pitched gabled roofs of northern europe are typical in regions of heavy snowfall.