Job takeoff
Pitched roof re-covering takeoff
Strip a pitched roof to its rafters and cover it again: the scaffold, the underlay, battens and tiles or slates (or shingles on a deck), the eaves and ridge ventilation, the flashings and pipe flashings, the fascia and gutters if they are renewed, and the skip, with the rafters flagged and never sized.
A takeoff is the trade word for the shopping list a job produces — every material, and how much of each, worked out by its own cited calculator.
- 10Measurements in
- 11Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
Calculators behind the other choices:
Calculators behind the other choices:
Compare one layer at these dimensions, with the rest of the build-up held as you have it:
Give the job once
Every figure on the right follows these, in the units you choose.
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the pitched roof re-covering quote check: each line is read against these same calculators — what it leaves out, what it adds, and what to ask.
Check the quoteEvery trade, from those dimensions
then change a dimension, and each line shows what moved.
| Trade | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
Dust sheets (drop cloths) in the loft (attic)Masking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over the loft floor, taken as the roof's plan area, which is a little more than the loft inside the walls: the spare goes over what is stored under the eaves or the path below. Stripping to bare rafters drops old mortar and felt into the loft. Nothing is taped, so the row counts sheets alone.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 7 items | |
Scaffold along the first eaveScaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity CalculatorThe face along one eave, its length by the height to the eaves: the platform the roof is stripped and covered from, with a guard rail and debris netting at the top lift. A gable's verges are worked from the returns at each end; a hipped roof is scaffolded all round.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator | 495 ft² of face | |
Scaffold along the second eaveScaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity CalculatorThe face along the other eave, the same length and height. The two are two faces, each with its own end standards, which is why they are two rows.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator | 495 ft² of face | |
Underlay (felt, membrane or underlayment)Roofing Underlayment CalculatorUnderlay over the whole roof on the slope, less the ice barrier's strip where there is one, in the calculator's 1,000 sq ft (93 m²) rolls with its lap allowance. A breathable membrane sold in another roll size divides the working's area to cover by its own roll.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The overlap allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Roofing Underlayment Calculator | 1 roll | |
Eaves vent trays (rafter baffles)Attic Rafter Baffle/Chute Count CalculatorOne tray or baffle to each rafter space along both eaves, at the calculator's opening centres of 610 mm (24 in); rafters at 400 mm (16 in) centres take half as many again. Each keeps the air path open over the loft insulation at the eaves.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Attic Rafter Baffle/Chute Count Calculator | 30 baffles | |
Shingles, in squaresRoof Squares CalculatorShingles for the whole roof from the plan area and the pitch, in squares of 100 sq ft (9.29 m²) with the calculator's waste allowance; three-tab and architectural shingles come three bundles to the square. They are nailed to the boarded deck (sheathing), so a shingle roof is stripped to the deck, not the rafters, and the deck is checked before the underlay goes down.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 9.92 squares | |
Ventilated ridge (ridge vent)Ridge Vent Linear Footage CalculatorVent along the whole ridge with the calculator's allowance: a vent roll under a dry-fixed ridge of tiles, or ridge vent under cap shingles, where the roof space breathes at the top. It goes under the ridge, not in place of it. An unvented ridge leaves the row out.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Ridge Vent Linear Footage Calculator | 31.5 ft | |
Ridge cap shinglesRoof Ridge Cap CalculatorCap shingles along the ridge in bundles, laid last and over the ridge vent where there is one; hips take the same cap, added to this length.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The cut-end allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 1 bundle | |
Pipe flashings (collars or boots) for soil and vent pipesRoof Vent Pipe Boot Count CalculatorOne flashing to each pipe or flue through the roof: a lead slate or a pipe flashing on tiles and slate, a boot on shingles. The calculator adds a spare, which on a single pipe rounds up to one to fit and one in hand.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The spare allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Roof Vent Pipe Boot Count Calculator | 2 boots | |
Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing)Exterior Flashing Layout Trim Sheet CalculatorPieces of flashing for the length where the roof meets a wall or a stack, cut from the piece the sizes set: lead in 1.5 m (5 ft) pieces in metric, the longest the Lead Sheet Association's guidance gives for Code 4, and 10 ft (3.05 m) coil pieces in imperial. Soakers, where plain tiles or slates meet the side of a stack, go one to a course and are not in this count.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Exterior Flashing Layout Trim Sheet Calculator | 2 sheets | |
Skip (dumpster) for the old coveringSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe loose volume of the old covering, battens and felt: the roof on the slope times the loose depth you gave, as rubble. The working gives its weight and the loads that weight takes. Tiles sold on or kept for reuse come off it.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 4.17 yd³ | |
Dust sheets (drop cloths) in the loft (attic)Masking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over the loft floor, taken as the roof's plan area, which is a little more than the loft inside the walls: the spare goes over what is stored under the eaves or the path below. Stripping to bare rafters drops old mortar and felt into the loft. Nothing is taped, so the row counts sheets alone.
Why this quantity? | 7 items | |
Scaffold along the first eaveScaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity CalculatorThe face along one eave, its length by the height to the eaves: the platform the roof is stripped and covered from, with a guard rail and debris netting at the top lift. A gable's verges are worked from the returns at each end; a hipped roof is scaffolded all round.
Why this quantity? | 45 m² of face | |
Scaffold along the second eaveScaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity CalculatorThe face along the other eave, the same length and height. The two are two faces, each with its own end standards, which is why they are two rows.
Why this quantity? | 45 m² of face | |
Underlay (felt, membrane or underlayment)Roofing Underlayment CalculatorUnderlay over the whole roof on the slope, less the ice barrier's strip where there is one, in the calculator's 1,000 sq ft (93 m²) rolls with its lap allowance. A breathable membrane sold in another roll size divides the working's area to cover by its own roll.
Why this quantity? | 1 roll | |
Eaves vent trays (rafter baffles)Attic Rafter Baffle/Chute Count CalculatorOne tray or baffle to each rafter space along both eaves, at the calculator's opening centres of 610 mm (24 in); rafters at 400 mm (16 in) centres take half as many again. Each keeps the air path open over the loft insulation at the eaves.
Why this quantity? | 30 baffles | |
Batten rows, each slopeRoof Batten Spacing Calculator (Tile Roofing)Rows of battens up one slope at the tile's gauge, the sizes' own; each slope takes the same. The battens to buy are the rows times the eave length for each slope, each joint made over a rafter. Counter-battens, where the underlay drains under them, are one to each rafter up the slope and are not in this count.
Why this quantity? | 15 rows | |
Nails and clips (fixings)Roof Covering Fixing CalculatorNails and clips for every tile over the whole roof on the slope, at the tile's cover and gauge, two to a tile in the field and four at the perimeter as the calculator opens. Its working's units in total is the tile count, before the tiles cut at the verges, hips and valleys and those broken in handling. The pattern for the site's wind exposure comes from the tile maker's fixing specification (BS 5534 in the UK), and the ridge, hip and verge pieces are held by their own systems.
Why this quantity? | 1976 fixings | |
Ventilated ridge (ridge vent)Ridge Vent Linear Footage CalculatorVent along the whole ridge with the calculator's allowance: a vent roll under a dry-fixed ridge of tiles, or ridge vent under cap shingles, where the roof space breathes at the top. It goes under the ridge, not in place of it. An unvented ridge leaves the row out.
Why this quantity? | 9.45 m | |
Pipe flashings (collars or boots) for soil and vent pipesRoof Vent Pipe Boot Count CalculatorOne flashing to each pipe or flue through the roof: a lead slate or a pipe flashing on tiles and slate, a boot on shingles. The calculator adds a spare, which on a single pipe rounds up to one to fit and one in hand.
Why this quantity? | 2 boots | |
Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing)Exterior Flashing Layout Trim Sheet CalculatorPieces of flashing for the length where the roof meets a wall or a stack, cut from the piece the sizes set: lead in 1.5 m (5 ft) pieces in metric, the longest the Lead Sheet Association's guidance gives for Code 4, and 10 ft (3.05 m) coil pieces in imperial. Soakers, where plain tiles or slates meet the side of a stack, go one to a course and are not in this count.
Why this quantity? | 3 sheets | |
Skip (dumpster) for the old coveringSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe loose volume of the old covering, battens and felt: the roof on the slope times the loose depth you gave, as rubble. The working gives its weight and the loads that weight takes. Tiles sold on or kept for reuse come off it.
Why this quantity? | 3.25 m³ |
Also part of this job when you need it: Ice barrier along the eaves — set eaves with an ice barrier above 0.
Also part of this job when you need it: Ice barrier along the eaves — set eaves with an ice barrier above 0.
Estimates, not a quote. Each row gives its base, the allowance on top, the adjusted figure and what to order; change an allowance on the row, or open its reasoning to see every figure it rests on. A trade's own page carries what it does not cover — open the one you are about to order against.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Dust sheets (drop cloths) in the loft (attic)2.8 h (1.4–5.6)
- Underlay (felt, membrane or underlayment)4.2 h (2.5–8.4)
- Eaves vent trays (rafter baffles)3.7 h (1.8–7.3)
- Shingles, in squares11 h (6.5–26)
- Ventilated ridge (ridge vent)1.8 h (0.9–3.7)
- Pipe flashings (collars or boots) for soil and vent pipes1.0 h (0.3–2.0)
- Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing)3.6 h (1.2–7.1)
- Skip (dumpster) for the old covering3.2 h (1.6–9.6)
About 31 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 16 and 69.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Roofer2 roofers1½ days
About 2½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
3 rows carry no hours of their own
- Scaffold along the first eave: Scaffolding is not rated here: it is usually erected by a scaffolding firm and priced as hire, and where your own crew puts it up, the system and the height set the time.
- Scaffold along the second eave: Scaffolding is not rated here: it is usually erected by a scaffolding firm and priced as hire, and where your own crew puts it up, the system and the height set the time.
- Ridge cap shingles: counted with Shingles, in squares
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Dust sheets (drop cloths) in the loft (attic)2.7 h (1.4–5.4)
- Underlay (felt, membrane or underlayment)4.1 h (2.4–8.1)
- Eaves vent trays (rafter baffles)3.6 h (1.8–7.2)
- Nails and clips (fixings)49 h (24–203)
- Ventilated ridge (ridge vent)1.8 h (0.9–3.6)
- Pipe flashings (collars or boots) for soil and vent pipes1.0 h (0.3–2.0)
- Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing)3.6 h (1.2–7.2)
- Skip (dumpster) for the old covering3.2 h (1.6–9.7)
About 69 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 34 and 246.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Roofer2 roofers4 days
About 4½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
3 rows carry no hours of their own
- Scaffold along the first eave: Scaffolding is not rated here: it is usually erected by a scaffolding firm and priced as hire, and where your own crew puts it up, the system and the height set the time.
- Scaffold along the second eave: Scaffolding is not rated here: it is usually erected by a scaffolding firm and priced as hire, and where your own crew puts it up, the system and the height set the time.
- Batten rows, each slope: counted with Nails and clips (fixings)
Setups you have saved
The build-up, the dimensions and any allowance you changed — kept on this device, and reusable on any job. Your prices are not copied in: they stay in your price book, so a setup never holds a stale one.
How far does a budget go?
At your own prices, with this build-up unchanged.
About this job
Re-covering a pitched roof keeps the rafters and replaces everything on them. The old tiles or slates come off with their battens and felt, down to bare rafters, and the roof is built back in the order the weather meets it: the underlay (underlayment) from the eaves up, then the battens at the gauge the covering needs, then the covering itself, course by course, finished at the ridge, the verges (rakes), the hips and valleys and every wall or chimney it meets. The rows are those layers, ordered on the roof's area on the slope, which is the plan you can measure from the ground multiplied by the slope factor for its pitch.
The covering decides most of the order. Interlocking tiles, concrete or clay, are single-lap: each overlaps only the tile beside it and the course below, and a large-format tile lays at about ten to the square metre (roughly one to the square foot). Natural slate is double-lap, every point covered by two slates, so the same roof takes about twice as many pieces, each course at a little over half a tile's gauge. Both hang on battens. Asphalt shingles are nailed to a boarded deck (sheathing) instead, the North American way of covering a house, and they need no battens; the asphalt shingle roof takeoff measures that roof from its footprint in more detail.
The units pick the roof as well as its sizes. Metric opens on interlocking tiles, the usual British re-roof, and imperial on asphalt shingles, the usual North American one; either covering is one choice away in either system. Metric's tile is a large-format one with a 300 mm (about 12 in) cover at a 345 mm (about 13 1/2 in) gauge, with a 500 × 250 mm (about 20 × 10 in) slate and lead in 1.5 m (5 ft) pieces; imperial's, where tiles are chosen, is a 12 in (305 mm) tile at a 13 1/2 in (343 mm) exposure, with a 20 × 10 in (508 × 254 mm) slate and flashing in 10 ft (3.05 m) pieces. Every one is an example product, and the maker's own figures replace it.
Weight is the one thing a new covering changes about the structure, and nothing on this page answers it. Clay barrel tile weighs roughly four times what asphalt shingle does, as the clay barrel tile page itself warns, and concrete tiles are heavy in the same way; laying either on rafters that carried slate or shingles is a question for an engineer or the building control surveyor. So is any rafter, wall plate or ridge board found rotten when the old covering comes off, which is listed as a provisional repair. The page flags both and sizes no rafter, purlin or batten.
How each line reads
- Base
- What the calculator gives for these dimensions, before anything is added.
- Allowance
- Cutting waste, a lap or spare stock — named, with where it comes from, and changeable on the row.
- Adjusted
- The base with its allowance on top.
- Order
- What to buy: the adjusted figure in whole boards, bags, rolls or lengths.
The order this happens in
Quantities do not tell you the sequence, and on this job the sequence is where the money goes wrong.
- Before the strip, look into the loft (attic): the rafters, the old felt, any sign of bats (a survey, and a licence where they roost, come before any work), and whether the old slates, felt or soffits are old enough to need an asbestos check.
- Scaffold both eaves with a guard rail and debris netting at the top lift, sheet the loft floor, and take the aerials, dishes and alarm box off to be refixed.
- Strip one slope at a time, no more than can be sheeted over again by nightfall, down to bare rafters: sound tiles or slates stacked for reuse, the battens and felt to the skip.
- Repair or replace any rafter, wall plate or ridge board found decayed, and renew the fascia if it is coming off, before anything covers them; where the work is notifiable, the stripped roof is the stage the inspector may want to see.
- Lay the underlay from the eaves up, each course lapping the one below, with the eaves vent trays at its foot and an ice barrier first along the eaves where the code asks for one; then fix the battens to the gauge, or on a shingle roof check the deck and nail the drip edge.
- Fit any roof window once the battens are on, then lay the covering from the eaves up, cutting in at the verges, valleys and hips, and fitting the pipe flashings and dressing the lead as the courses reach them.
- Finish the ridge and hips, dry-fixed or bedded, over the vented ridge where the roof breathes at the top, and the verges with dry verge units or a bedded undercloak.
- Refix what came off the roof, clear the gutters, the paths and the loft of debris, and have the finished roof seen before the scaffold comes down.
What this takeoff does not cover
- Strengthening the rafters, purlins or wall plates, and whether they carry a covering heavier than the old one. Timber found decayed is a provisional repair item; how it is repaired, and whether the roof takes the new weight, is for an engineer or building control, and the page sizes no member.
- Insulation the regulations may call for when the roof is renewed. In England, re-covering more than a quarter of a roof is renovating a thermal element, and the loft or the rafters are then brought up to today's standard wherever that is practical; what is needed is agreed with building control before the roof is closed, and it is neither listed nor measured here.
- Bat surveys, and any licence needed where bats roost in the roof.
- Chimney repairs and rebuilds: repointing, new pots, a cowl or a rebuilt stack. The flashings round a stack are counted; the stack itself is not.
- Taking down and recommissioning a solar PV array, which is its installer's work, and moving or shrouding an overhead supply cable at the eaves, which is the network operator's or the utility's. Aerials, dishes and alarm boxes are set aside and refixed, and nothing more.
- Work where the roof meets a neighbour's across a party wall, and any notice it needs (in England and Wales, under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996).
- A row of its own for the roof tiles or slates, and the ridge and hip tiles, verge units, valley troughs and eaves closures. Concrete, clay and interlocking tiles and natural slates are counted in the fixing row's working, as its units in total, before those cut at the verges, hips and valleys or broken in handling; the fittings are listed as work and ordered by their own length from the maker's range.
- A hipped roof's battens and courses, a lean-to, a mansard, or planes at two pitches. The area rows hold for a hipped roof at one pitch, but its batten rows take a gable's slope; take each plane off on its own.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the pitched roof re-covering quote check. Every line of it is read against these same calculators and your measurements. Quantities only, never prices.
What it leaves out
Every line this takeoff has that nothing on the quote reads as.
What it adds
Labour, removal, hire, fees — each named for what it is.
What to ask
One list of questions, ready to copy. Never a verdict.
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the pitched roof re-covering takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Roof length on plan, along the ridge 9 m · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 7.5 m · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 5 m · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 4 m · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 0.04 m · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 0.6 m, it orders: Dust sheets (drop cloths) in the loft (attic), 7 items; Scaffold along the first eave, 45 m² of face; Scaffold along the second eave, 45 m² of face; Underlay (felt, membrane or underlayment), 1 roll; Eaves vent trays (rafter baffles), 30 baffles; Batten rows, each slope, 15 rows; Nails and clips (fixings), 1,976 fixings; Ventilated ridge (ridge vent), 9.45 m; Pipe flashings (collars or boots) for soil and vent pipes, 2 boots; Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing), 3 sheets; Skip (dumpster) for the old covering, 3.25 m³. Opened at Roof length on plan, along the ridge 30 ft · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 25 ft · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 16.5 ft · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 13 ft · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 1.5 in · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 2 ft: Dust sheets (drop cloths) in the loft (attic), 7 items; Scaffold along the first eave, 495 ft² of face; Scaffold along the second eave, 495 ft² of face; Underlay (felt, membrane or underlayment), 1 roll; Eaves vent trays (rafter baffles), 30 baffles; Shingles, in squares, 9.92 squares; Ventilated ridge (ridge vent), 31.5 ft; Ridge cap shingles, 1 bundle; Pipe flashings (collars or boots) for soil and vent pipes, 2 boots; Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing), 2 sheets; Skip (dumpster) for the old covering, 4.17 yd³. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the pitched roof re-covering takeoff run?
- 10 calculators, for 11 lines: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator, Roofing Underlayment Calculator, Attic Rafter Baffle/Chute Count Calculator, Roof Squares Calculator, Ridge Vent Linear Footage Calculator, Roof Ridge Cap Calculator, Roof Vent Pipe Boot Count Calculator, Exterior Flashing Layout Trim Sheet Calculator, Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.10 calculators, for 11 lines: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator, Roofing Underlayment Calculator, Attic Rafter Baffle/Chute Count Calculator, Roof Batten Spacing Calculator (Tile Roofing), Roof Covering Fixing Calculator, Ridge Vent Linear Footage Calculator, Roof Vent Pipe Boot Count Calculator, Exterior Flashing Layout Trim Sheet Calculator, Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.
- What does the pitched roof re-covering takeoff leave out?
- 8 things, each named on this page: Strengthening the rafters, purlins or wall plates, and whether they carry a covering heavier than the old one; Insulation the regulations may call for when the roof is renewed; Bat surveys, and any licence needed where bats roost in the roof; Chimney repairs and rebuilds; Taking down and recommissioning a solar PV array, which is its installer's work, and moving or shrouding an overhead supply cable at the eaves, which is the network operator's or the utility's; Work where the roof meets a neighbour's across a party wall, and any notice it needs (in England and Wales, under the Party Wall etc; A row of its own for the roof tiles or slates, and the ridge and hip tiles, verge units, valley troughs and eaves closures; A hipped roof's battens and courses, a lean-to, a mansard, or planes at two pitches.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The pitched roof re-covering quote check reads a quote's lines against these same calculators and your measurements, and reports what it leaves out, what it adds and what to ask. It reads quantities, never prices.