How to measure your roof pitch

Roof windows and skylights are an excellent way of using natural light to transform your space.

Once you’ve made the decision to see what a roof window can do for your home, it’s important that you have all the right information you need to select the right window for your home.

Knowing the pitch of your roof is an incredibly useful piece of information to have about your home. The pitch of your roof is key to making sure that you’re installing the right type of window and flashing onto your roof.

If the wrong type of window or flashing is installed, your window can be damaged by water or the weather, causing expensive repairs. Knowing your roof pitch, you can ensure that you always install the right type of window and flashing, protecting your investments and increasing the longevity of your roof windows and skylights.

To help you know the pitch of your roof, we’ve put together this guide for how to measure your roof pitch.

To measure the pitch of your roof, you need to start with two measurements of:

• The run. This is the horizontal distance of your roof and runs from the peak of your roof to the wall.
• The rise. This is the height of your roof and is measured from the wall of your home to the peak of your roof.

When getting these measurements, ensure that you are safe at all times. If you’re out on the roof, don’t put yourself in danger and make sure that you have safe access and footing.

With the rise and the run measurements, the calculation for a roof pitch is:

Roof pitch: 1 ÷ Tangent (Rise ÷ Run)

For those that don’t want to do the math, there are free online calculators, such as this one from myrooff that will do the sum for you.

There are even many pitch finder apps that will use your camera to calculate the pitch of your roof while you’re directly looking at it.

Once you know the pitch of your roof, you can rest easy knowing that you’ve got the right roof window, skylight or flashing for your home.

At LB supplies, we supply a range of products suitable for all roof types between pitches of 15-90 degrees. With high-quality products that you can trust, we give you the tools that you need to transform your home.

For more information on roof pitches or how to transform your home with a roof window, get in touch with a member of our team today.