How to Estimate Roofing Nails

Before you attempt to shingle your roof, you must be sure that you have the proper amount of materials. If you guess at your needs, you can find yourself in the predicament of having too few or too many roofing nails to complete your project. Once you have determined the area of the roof you are going to shingle, however, estimating your material needs is quite simple with the help of some basic arithmetic.

Instructions

- 1
  Find the measure of length and width of each plane that makes up your roof. It is easiest to measure in feet.
- 2
  Multiply the length by the width for each individual plane to determine its area. For example, if one plane of the roof is 18 feet long and 6 feet wide, then the area for that plane is 18 x 6, or 108 square feet.
- 3
  Add the area of all the planes to determine the area of the entire roof.
- 4
  Determine the number of shingles you will need for your roof. The classic, 3-tabbed asphalt shingle comes in "squares." A square is 3 bundles of shingles. Dividing the area of your roof by 100 will give you the number of "squares" you will need to order. For example, if your roof is 1000 square feet, you will need 10 squares since 1000/100 = 10.
- 5
  Multiply the number of squares you will need for the roof by 2 1/2 to determine the number of roofing nails. In our example, 10 squares of shingles times 2 1/2 equals 25. In this case, you will need 25 pounds of roofing nails to complete the job.

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