Roofing is a very profitable business in areas that face multiple storms in a year. But a number of Roofing contractors are unable to sustain the business. The main reason is that they are not aware of the costs of the whole project. Due to this, they underbid the project, which in turn not only result in financial loss, but also loss of reputation due to renegotiating with clients. Therefore, here we are going to discuss a number of ways on how you can measure the whole roof, and how to decide on pricing according to the costs for roofing . This will not only result in getting rid of any problems that might occur during the project, but will also help you in earning more profits.

Apart from that, not only the contractors can benefit from this article, but also the people who want to get a roofing job can get help from this article. With this, they can learn about the various aspects they need to take in consideration while getting a roofing job.

Steps for estimating the full price:

There are number of steps involved through which you can estimate the whole cost that will come on roofing job. All the steps are as under.

Step 1: Calculating total area

The first step in estimation is measuring the whole area of the roof. This will help you in calculating the cost for all the materials that are going to be used, in addition to the number of shingles as that are the most expensive thing.

In order to measure the roof, you can simply measure the squared area of the house. This will give you an estimate of the square area of the roof. With this, you can calculate the number of shingles that you are going to use. In order to calculate this, simply divide the total area by the area of a single shingle.

But a number of roofs are pitched. That means the roofs are slanting. Therefore, in order to measure the slant, you can measure 12 feet in length. Then measure the height that has changed in the 12 feet. For example, after 12 feet, the height has risen to 5 feet, this means that the pitch of the roof is 5:12. Now the shingles that are going to be used in this roof are going to be more than the ones that would have been used on a flat roof. For every pitch, there is a certain multiplier. With that, you can calculate how many additional shingles will be required. All the multipliers with respective pitch are given in the table below.

Roof Pitch           Multiplier

3:12                        1.15

4:12                        1.20

5:12                        1.24

6:12                        1.24

7:12                        1.30

8:12                        1.35

9:12                        1.40

10:12                     1.40

11:12                     1.55

12:12                     1.70

Another thing that you need to consider is to always account for waste or damaged material. Therefore, always ask for additional shingles than the actual number. For the roofs with a number of different shapes, you need to calculate all the areas separately.

Step 2: Roof inspection

A number of home owners think that there is only a single part where the roof is leaking. But you should always thoroughly check the whole roof. There can be a lot more damage that the homeowner is not aware of. If you start the job, and then find more damage, it would definitely increase the cost. Therefore, always check the whole roof very carefully in order to identify all the damages that are present. Don’t forget to write down all the details regarding the damage which include damaged shingles, total damaged area etc. Before discussing the whole thing with the homeowner, make a complete idea about the whole project in your mind. This would help you in presenting your bid in a better way as you will be able to answer all the questions of the homeowner effectively.

Step 3. The actual Bid

Now is the time to present the bid to the homeowner. You don’t want to bid too high as that might scare away the owner and you don’t want to bid too low as that is going to cost you. Therefore, you must take a lot of care when presenting the bid with a little margin for yourself. Consider calculating the prices for the following things when calculating the total amount: