How to Calculate Pitch

Pitch is an important concept for building your roof. The pitch is how steep your roof is. With your existing roof, you can calculate your pitch using a tape measure. You need to imagine your roof as two right triangles back to back. The basic formula for pitch is rise over run. The rise is the height of the roof. The run is the half the size of the house. The larger the pitch, the steeper your roof.

Things You'll Need

• Tape measure

Show More

Instructions

1. • 1

     Face your roof so the roof looks like a triangle.

   • 2

     Measure from one end of the house to the other end of the house, then divide by two to calculate your run. For example, imagine the house measures 20 feet, so the run is 10 feet.

   • 3

     Measure from the steepest point of the roof downward to where the roof starts. This is your rise. In the example, assume the rise is five feet.

   • 4

     Divide the rise by the run. In the example, five feet divided by 10 feet equals a pitch of 0.5.