Understand Roof Pitch

You ll often hear experts express pitch as x over y.

Understand roof pitch.

To see how pitch impacts the look of a garage and changes cost click the design center button on our pole barn kits page. Roof pitch or slope is a measure of vertical rise to horizontal run expressed in inches per foot. Roof pitch is the measurement of the angle or the steepness of your roof. The roof pitching is essentially how steep the roof is going to be they are either going to be flat or pitched.

Although most homeowners do not need to measure pitch it still pays to understand this term. Roof pitch is the rise of the roof over the run of the roof. Technically roof pitch is the ratio of total vertical roof height the rise to total horizontal distance from wall to wall the span. A a roof with a 6 rise for every 12 run has a 6 per foot or 6 in 12 pitch.

Pitch compares the roof s span to the rise while slope compares rise and run. Mathematically the pitch of a roof is different calculation than roof slope. The pitch fraction represents a certain amount of vertical rise over the entire span. Pitch is thus the ratio of the rise in inches to a 12 inch run and is often expressed using a semicolon for example 6 12.

In this instance we want to take a look at how this can be changed and improved with the help of a roof pitch chart. First measure 12 inches from one end of the level and make a mark. For example given a roof with a rise of 4 feet and a span of 24 feet the pitch is 1 to 6 pitch which can be expressed as the fraction of 1 6. To calculate pitch you simply divide rise by span and display your result as a fraction.

A 12 to 24 pitch is expressed as 1 2. Roof pitch roof pitch refers to the amount of rise a roof has compared to the horizontal measurement of the roof called the run. For example if a roof is 8 feet high and spreads out from the center covering 12 feet in each direction the rise over the run would be 8 12. Then in the attic place the end of the level against the bottom of a roof rafter and hold it perfectly level.

Pitch angle incline slope they all can be used to refer to the steepness of a roof. The rise is the height of the roof from the base to the top.