Guides
How to Measure Your First Roof in RoofStruct: Trace, Label, Export
Your first roof in RoofStruct, step by step: trace it, split it into facets, label the edges, set pitch and waste, check the totals and export the PDF, free on every plan.
RoofStruct blogGuides
Guides
Every guide on measuring roofs from satellite imagery, drone photos and plans.
29 articles · Page 1 of 2
Guides
What Is RoofStruct? Roof Measurement & Estimating Software for Contractors
RoofStruct is roof measurement and estimating software for contractors: measure roofs yourself, send estimates homeowners e-sign, and order materials in one tool.
Guides
How to measure a roof without climbing it
Four ways to measure a roof with your feet on the ground: tape and wheel, satellite imagery, a drone or phone photo, or the plans. Plus how to get the pitch without going up.
Guides
Mesurer une toiture en mètres carrés au Canada
Au Canada, mesurer une toiture en m² se fait en trois étapes : surface en plan, facteur de pente, pertes. Un exemple chiffré en mètres, des paquets aux longueurs d’avant-toit.
Guides
Mesurer une toiture au Québec en pieds carrés : carrés, paquets et pente
Les couvreurs du Québec et du reste du Canada mesurent en pi² et commandent au carré. Superficie, pente, perte, paquets et pieds linéaires : la méthode, chiffres à l’appui.
Guides
Eave protection in Canada: measuring ice and water shield to the code
Canada's code sends eave protection 900 mm up the slope and 300 mm past the inner wall. How to measure that in feet and inches, the exemptions, and a worked example.
Guides
Logiciel de mesure de toiture gratuit au Canada : mesurer par satellite
Un logiciel gratuit de mesure de toiture au Canada doit lire l’imagerie satellite et parler en m². Ce qu’il donne, ce qu’il ne donne pas, et un exemple chiffré à Montréal.
Guides
Roof measurement in square metres: a metric guide for Canadian roofers
A metric guide for Canadian roofers: roof area in m², the pitch factor, lineal metres of eave, hip and ridge, and the eave membrane, worked on one Ontario hip roof.
Guides
How to measure a roof in Canada: satellite imagery, feet and squares
A step-by-step way to measure a roof in Canada from satellite imagery, in feet and squares: area, pitch factor, lineal feet, waste and bundles, with a worked example.
Guides
Roof measurement software for Canadian contractors
Feet or metres, squares or m², English or French, and a roof that spends four months under snow. What Canadian roofers should demand from measuring software, with the math.
Guides
Can ChatGPT measure a roof or write a roofing quote?
What a chat assistant can and can't do on a roofing job, a worked example of a guessed area against a measured one, and a workflow that keeps the numbers yours.
Guides
Manual vs digital roof takeoff: site visit against satellite
A tape takeoff sees the deck and the pitch; a satellite takeoff sees the whole outline from the office. What each one misses, and a hybrid workflow that covers the gaps.
Guides
How to calculate roof pitch, with the pitch factor table
Rise over run, the x/12 notation, the conversions to degrees and percent, a pitch factor table from 1/12 to 18/12, four ways to measure on site, and a worked area example.
Guides
How to measure a roof online, free, from your desk
Eight steps from the address to the PDF, a worked example on a 44 × 36 gable, what the free report holds, and the places where measuring from your desk lets you down.
Guides
How to measure a roof: site visit, plans or satellite imagery
Tape on the roof, the plans, or satellite imagery: how each method works, what it costs you in time and risk, and the math every one of them ends in, worked on a hip roof.
Guides
Free roof measurement app for contractors: phone, tablet or desktop?
A phone gets you a footprint in the driveway, a tablet handles a full trace, the desktop finishes the job. What each screen is good for and where it costs you precision.
Guides
What is an ESX file, and how do you get a Xactimate-ready roof sketch?
An ESX file carries the roof sketch into Xactimate®. Who needs one, when drawing it yourself pays, and what an ordered sketch includes, costs and leaves out.
Guides
Roof report turnaround: what "within 4 hours" changes on a job
A roof report that lands the same day changes the sales call: order from the driveway, check it at lunch, send the quote that afternoon. Here's the day, hour by hour.
Guides
What is inside a digital roof report?
Cover, Roof Summary, three diagrams, Order Summary, Materials to Order, area tables and drainage: what each page of a digital roof report holds and how to read it.
Guides
How to order a roof measurement report: what to send, what comes back, how to check it
Order a roof measurement report the right way: the address or pin, property type, pitch and notes to send, what comes back in each file, and a quick check before you quote.
Guides
Roof dimensions from satellite: perimeter, area, squares and facets explained
Perimeter, plan area, true area, squares, facets, line types and predominant pitch, defined one by one and worked through on a cross-gable house you can check yourself.
Guides
Finding roof pitch from satellite imagery and Street View
Why a top-down image can't show pitch, how to read it from Street View or a gable-end photo, the pitch-factor table from 3/12 to 12/12, and what a two-step miss costs.
Guides
Measuring parapets, flashings and flat roofs from aerial imagery
Aerial imagery gives you parapet length, flashing runs and flat roof area. It can't give you parapet height, curb heights or drains. Here is the math on both sides.
Guides
Measuring overhangs and eaves from aerial imagery
The overhang is roof. Why you trace the eave line, not the walls, how an overhang moves area, perimeter and squares, and how to find the fascia line from above.
Measure your next roof free
Unlimited self-serve measuring and PDF reports on the free plan. No card.
Get started free