How To Determine Roof Pitch With Framing Square

This article explains how to make quick use of a framing square and its imprinted data to get some basic roof measurement data like roof pitch or slope rafter lengths and end cuts.

How to determine roof pitch with framing square.

Framing square guides are small inexpensive metal attachments to the framing square that are locked in position on the square s edges at the pitch and run dimensions to define the roof angle and make the repeated marking of the rafters much more efficient. Technically roof pitch is the ratio of total vertical roof height the rise to total horizontal distance from wall to wall the span. Square guides are available at most hardware and home improvement centers. The only tools needed to determine the pitch of any roof is a ladder a torpedo level a speed square and a straightedge.

The triangle shaped square was invented in 1925 by albert swanson to provide a quick accurate method for marking rafters. A carpenter s framing square includes some tables stamped right into the tool itself. 5 x research source although most homeowners do not need to measure pitch it still pays to understand this term. Roof pitch affects the actual area of the roof.

A long standing use of the framing square that is missed by many new carpenters is the rafter table imprinted right on the framing square itself. This angle is measured not in degrees but in inches of rise per foot of run. A roof s pitch is determined by how much it rises vertically for every foot it runs horizontally. The pitch of a roof is determined by the slope of the rafters in relation to the horizon.

It affects walkability as well as drainage and roofs in areas of high rain or snowfall tend to have steeper pitches. This data will tell us the required rafter length for a roof of a given pitch or slope. To accurately calculate the area of your roof you must first determine its slope or pitch. How to use a framing square and its etched on tables to figure out roof slope rafter lengths.

Finding the pitch of a roof is simple with a speed square.