Understanding Roof Pitch

The pitch of your roof is determined by the measurement of the vertical rise by the horizontal run.

Understanding roof pitch.

A 12 to 24 pitch is expressed as 1 2. Simply put roof pitch is the measurement of the angle or the steepness of your roof. The term pitch and slope are often used interchangeably which is incorrect. The rise is the height of the roof from the base to the top.

They do not mean the same thing. Because it is one of the many key elements that determine the safety of the roof over your head there is a very good reason to understand the purpose of roof pitch. Roof pitch is the rise of the roof over the run of the roof. This implies a rooftop that is 4 inches higher than it was 12 creeps back assessing on a flat plane is a four and twelve rooftop.

How to measure roof pitch. For example a roof that rises 6 inches for every 12 inches of horizontal run has a 6 in 12 pitch. A roof that ascents six inches each twelve level inches is depicted as a 6 and 12 roof. To calculate pitch you simply divide rise by span and display your result as a fraction.

You ll often hear experts express pitch as x over y. Mathematically the pitch of a roof is different calculation than roof slope. 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. 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.