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.
Canadian contractors need measuring software that switches cleanly between feet and metres, finds Canadian addresses, works in French and English, and lets you deal with imagery shot in winter. Everything else (tracing facets, setting pitch, labeling edges) is the same job as anywhere in North America.
Here's what to check, and a worked example you can run yourself.
What a Canadian shop needs from measuring software
Feet and metres, squares and m²
Most Canadian roofers order shingles by the square and talk pitch in twelfths. But architects' plans and many commercial specs come in metric, and some customers ask for m² on the quote. You live in both systems on the same job.
The software should let you pick the unit per user, not per project, and carry it into the export. If you have to convert by hand between the screen and the supplier order, sooner or later somebody divides by the wrong number.
French and English
In Québec, and for many crews in New Brunswick and Ontario, French isn't optional. A tool that only runs in English pushes translation work onto the office.
Canadian addresses
Address search should take a Canadian civic address and land on the right house. Rural routes and new subdivisions are where a pin can drop a few lots off, so check it against the street before you trace.
Snow and the imagery season
Satellite imagery is a snapshot from one day. If that day was in January, the roof may be white from eave to ridge. Snow hides valleys, softens hips, buries vents and drifts over low-slope sections. Low winter sun adds long shadows that swallow a north-facing rake.
The rule is simple: trace on clear imagery, confirm on site. If the imagery shows snow, trace the edges you can see with confidence, note the ones you can't, and confirm them at the walk-around or with your own drone or phone photo once the roof is clear.
Pitch notation: x/12 is standard here too
Canadian roofers write pitch as rise over a 12-unit run, the same as in the US: 4/12, 6/12, 8/12, even when every other dimension on the plans is metric. Degrees show up on engineered drawings, percent on low-slope work.
| Rise over 12 | Degrees | Pitch factor |
|---|---|---|
| 4/12 | 18.4° | 1.054 |
| 6/12 | 26.6° | 1.118 |
| 8/12 | 33.7° | 1.202 |
| 12/12 | 45.0° | 1.414 |
The pitch factor turns plan area into true (slope-adjusted) area, and it's the same number in metric and imperial because it's a ratio. For the full table and how to measure pitch on site, see how to calculate roof pitch.
Worked example: one roof in ft², m² and squares
Take a simple gable on a bungalow. The footprint, overhangs included, measures 13.0 m × 9.0 m, and the pitch is 6/12. The one conversion to remember: 1 m² = 10.764 ft², so one square (100 ft²) is 9.290 m².
Plan area
- Metric: 13.0 × 9.0 = 117.0 m²
- Imperial: 117.0 × 10.764 = 1,259 ft²
True area at 6/12 (factor 1.118)
- Metric: 117.0 × 1.118 = 130.8 m²
- Imperial: 1,259 × 1.118 = 1,408 ft²
Squares
- From feet: 1,408 ÷ 100 = 14.1 squares
- From metres: 130.8 ÷ 9.290 = 14.1 squares
Both routes land on the same answer, which is the check you want. Now add 10% waste for a simple gable:
- 1,408 × 1.10 = 1,549 ft², or 15.5 squares
- 130.8 × 1.10 = 143.9 m²
- At 3 bundles per square: 15.5 × 3 = 46.5, so order 47 bundles
If your metric and imperial totals don't agree to the first decimal of a square, a conversion went wrong.
Where you trip
Pricing per m² with a per-square rate. This is the expensive one. A rate per square is a rate per 100 ft², not per ft² and not per m². To convert, divide by 9.290. Using a made-up rate to show the arithmetic: $400 per square ÷ 9.290 = $43.06 per m². Quote $400 per m² by mistake and the price is off by about nine times.
Converting twice. If the software already shows m², don't convert it again for the order. One system per document.
Rounding early. Round squares at the end, not at each step. Rounding 117.0 m² to 1,260 ft² and then rounding true area again will drift a few square feet on every pass.
Trusting a snow-covered trace. A white roof makes a hip roof look like a gable and hides a cricket entirely. If you couldn't see it, you didn't measure it.
Mixing up plan and true area. Footprint area from a survey or a site plan is plan area. Multiply by the pitch factor before you order material.
How RoofStruct handles it
RoofStruct is free, unlimited self-serve measuring and PDF reports, no card. Here's how it fits a Canadian job:
- Units. Under Settings, Measurement Units switches between Imperial (ft, ft²) and Metric (m, m²), and the choice carries through the app and into exports. In metric, areas read in m².
- Pitch. Pitch Notation offers Rise over 12 (6:12), Degrees (26.6°) or Percent (50%). Measurements are stored the same way whichever you pick, so switching only changes how they read.
- Language. The app runs in English and Canadian French, and the marketing site has a French version. The PDF report itself is in English.
- Addresses. Address search covers Canadian addresses, and the free pitch finder works on them too.
- Imagery. You trace on satellite imagery or on your own drone or phone photo, which is the way around a winter capture.
- Estimates in Canadian dollars. On the paid Pro plan, estimates you send customers can be set to Canadian dollars, and the estimate builder has a Québec (GST + QST) tax mode that applies GST 5% and QST 9.975% to the discounted subtotal.
One line to be clear about: RoofStruct's own plans and reports are billed in US dollars. The currency setting only changes what your customers see on your estimates.
If you're new to tracing from above, start with how to measure a roof from satellite imagery.
FAQ
Do Canadian roofers use squares or square metres?
Most residential crews order and price by the square, because shingles are sold that way. Metric shows up on plans, commercial specs and some customer quotes, so read both.
Is roof pitch written differently in Canada?
No. Rise over 12 (4/12, 6/12, 8/12) is the everyday notation in Canada, as in the US. Degrees appear on some engineered drawings, and percent on low-slope roofs.
Can I measure a roof from satellite imagery in winter?
You can measure what the imagery shows clearly. Snow hides valleys, vents and low-slope sections, so trace the edges you can see, flag the rest, and confirm them on site or with your own photo once the roof is clear.
How do I convert squares to m²?
Multiply squares by 9.290. A 14.1-square roof is 14.1 × 9.290 = 131 m². To go the other way, divide m² by 9.290.