Roofing Takeoff Software

A roofing takeoff is the process of measuring quantities from roof plans to calculate every material needed for a roofing project. You measure roof plane areas from plan-view drawings, apply slope factors to convert to actual surface area, then calculate shingle squares, underlayment rolls, and accessory quantities. The term "takeoff" comes from the estimating practice of taking quantities off the blueprints. For roofing, this means measuring three types of quantities from the architectural roof plan. First, area measurements for each roof plane using a polygon tool. Plan-view area gets multiplied by the slope factor for the given pitch to get actual roof surface area, then divided by 100 to get squares. Second, linear measurements for ridge cap, hip cap, valley metal, drip edge, rake trim, starter strip, and eave lengths. These drive accessory material orders that are separate from the shingle quantity. Third, count measurements for every penetration: plumbing vent pipe boots, furnace exhaust split boots, skylight flashing kits, chimney step flashing, and exhaust vent collars. A complete roofing takeoff also includes underlayment coverage with overlap allowance, ice and water shield at eaves, valleys, and penetrations, and ventilation items like ridge vent or box vents. A thorough roofing quantity takeoff feeds directly into the material order and the labor estimate.

Upload the PDF roof plans into takeoff software, calibrate the drawing scale, trace each roof plane with a polygon tool, measure linear runs for accessories, count penetrations, and export quantities for ordering. The full process has four steps. First, load the architectural roof plan into Easy Takeoffs. Roof plans show the footprint from above with ridge lines, hips, valleys, and eave lines marked. Second, calibrate the scale by clicking two points on a known dimension, such as an overall building width or a dimensioned overhang. This tells the software how to convert screen pixels to real-world feet. Third, trace each roof plane with the polygon tool to get plan-view area. Separate complex roofs into individual planes: main roof, garage, porch, dormers. Multiply each plane area by its slope factor to get actual surface area. Then switch to the linear tool and trace ridge, hip, valley, eave, and rake edges. Use the count tool for every penetration. Group measurements by roof zone so each section has its own material summary. Fourth, export to CSV. The export shows shingle squares per zone, linear footage for each accessory type, and penetration counts by type. Apply waste factors per material, round up to whole bundles and 10-foot pieces, and send the order to your supplier.

Multiply the plan-view area by the slope factor for your roof pitch. Plan-view area is the horizontal footprint of the roof as seen from directly above. It does not account for the slope of the roof surface. A 6/12 pitch roof has an 11.8 percent larger surface area than its footprint, so you multiply by 1.118. The slope factor comes from the Pythagorean theorem: the square root of (1 plus (rise divided by run) squared). The most common residential slope factors are 3/12 at 1.031, 4/12 at 1.054, 5/12 at 1.083, 6/12 at 1.118, 7/12 at 1.158, 8/12 at 1.202, 9/12 at 1.250, 10/12 at 1.302, and 12/12 at 1.414. For example, a 2,500 square foot plan-view footprint on a 6/12 pitch is 2,500 times 1.118, which equals 2,795 square feet of actual roof surface, or about 28 squares. On a 10/12 pitch, the same footprint is 3,254 square feet, or about 32.5 squares. The difference between those two pitches is 4.5 squares of shingles, roughly $585 in material at $130 per square. Getting the slope factor wrong by even one pitch increment can throw off your entire order.

A roofing square is 100 square feet of actual roof surface area, and it is the standard unit for ordering and pricing roofing materials. Divide your total roof area (after applying the slope factor) by 100 to get the number of squares. Architectural shingles like GAF Timberline HDZ, CertainTeed Landmark, and Owens Corning Duration are sold in bundles, with 3 bundles per square. Each bundle covers 33.33 square feet. So a 30-square roof needs 90 bundles of shingles before waste. With a 15 percent waste factor, you need about 104 bundles. Shingle pricing is typically quoted per square for contractor accounts. Current material costs for architectural shingles run $100 to $180 per square depending on the product line, which translates to $33 to $60 per bundle at retail. The square is also the standard unit for labor pricing. Subcontractors typically charge $200 to $350 per square for tear-off and installation, with additional charges for steep slope, high roofs requiring crane access, and complex roof geometry. When comparing bids from suppliers, always confirm whether the quoted price is per square or per bundle, as mixing these up changes the material cost by a factor of three.

Use 10 percent for simple gable roofs and 15 to 20 percent for complex roofs with hips, valleys, dormers, and multiple pitches. The waste factor accounts for material lost to cuts, and the more intersections on the roof, the more cuts you make. A simple gable roof has waste only at the rakes, eaves, and around penetrations. Most pieces cut at one rake can be flipped and used at the opposite rake, keeping waste around 8 to 12 percent. A hip roof wastes about a third of a shingle per course along each hip line. A valley wastes about half a shingle per course. On a roof with four hips and two valleys, those cuts add up fast. Each dormer adds four to six intersection points that generate waste. Budget 15 percent minimum for hip roofs and 18 to 20 percent for roofs with multiple dormers, valleys, and cross gables. Steep pitch (8/12 and above) increases handling difficulty and cutting errors, adding another 2 to 3 percent. Winter installation on cold shingles causes more breakage. Always calculate starter strip, ridge cap, and hip cap as separate line items rather than folding them into the shingle waste factor. These are distinct products with their own coverage rates.

Easy Takeoffs is $39 a month or $399 a year, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card required. PlanSwift costs $2,000 a year per seat, STACK starts at $2,988, Bluebeam Revu Complete is $440, and EagleView charges $30 to $95 per individual roof report. Easy Takeoffs is the cheapest dedicated roofing takeoff tool on the market and switching from PlanSwift saves $1,532 a year on monthly billing per estimator. Every measurement tool is available from signup: polygon areas for roof planes, linear measurements for ridges, hips, valleys, eaves, and rakes, count tools for penetrations, measurement groups for zone organization, labels, and CSV export. You upload PDF roof plans, calibrate the scale, trace roof planes, measure linear accessories, count penetrations, group everything by zone, and export to CSV. The tool runs in your browser on any device. Projects save to the cloud automatically so you can start a takeoff on your office desktop and review it on your tablet at the supply house. You can cancel any time from the customer portal.

Easy Takeoffs is the cheapest dedicated roofing takeoff tool on the market at $39 a month or $399 a year. PlanSwift costs $2,000 a year and runs only on Windows. STACK starts at $2,988 a year. Bluebeam Revu Complete is $440 a year and is a general PDF markup tool, not a dedicated takeoff platform. EagleView and GAF QuickMeasure charge per roof report ($30 to $95 each) for aerial measurement and do not work with arbitrary PDF blueprints. Easy Takeoffs handles the full roofing takeoff workflow from any PDF plan set: polygon area measurement for each roof plane, linear measurement for ridge, hip, valley, eave, and rake runs, count tools for penetrations, color-coded measurement groups for zone organization, labeling, and CSV export. The browser-based platform works on Windows, Mac, iPad, and Android with no installation required. Switching from PlanSwift saves $1,532 a year on monthly billing, or $1,601 on annual. New accounts start with a 14-day free trial and no credit card.

Multiply your plan-view roof area by the slope factor, add the waste percentage, divide by 100 to get squares, then multiply by 3 to get bundles for standard architectural shingles. Here is the calculation step by step. Start with the plan-view area: 2,500 square feet. Apply the slope factor for a 6/12 pitch: 2,500 times 1.118 equals 2,795 square feet. Add 15 percent waste: 2,795 times 1.15 equals 3,214 square feet. Convert to squares: 3,214 divided by 100 equals 32.14 squares, round up to 33 squares. Convert to bundles: 33 times 3 equals 99 bundles. For three-tab shingles, the math is the same because both three-tab and architectural shingles pack 3 bundles per square. Some premium designer shingles pack differently, so always check the bundle coverage on the product packaging. GAF Timberline HDZ covers 33.33 square feet per bundle. CertainTeed Landmark covers the same. Owens Corning Duration also covers 33.33 square feet per bundle. Do not order partial bundles from a supplier. Always round up to whole bundles. For large orders, many suppliers sell by the square (pallet pricing) which is more cost-effective. A full pallet is typically 15 to 20 squares depending on the product.

Yes. Easy Takeoffs handles commercial flat and low-slope roofing projects with the same polygon area tool used for steep-slope work. For flat commercial roofs, the slope factor is 1.0 because there is no pitch adjustment needed. The plan-view area equals the actual roof area. Trace each roof section with the polygon tool, group TPO, EPDM, PVC, modified bitumen, and built-up roofing (BUR) sections separately with their own color-coded groups. Commercial roofs have different measurement challenges than residential. You need to account for rooftop mechanical equipment curbs, drain locations, scupper positions, skylight openings, parapet walls, expansion joints, and pipe penetrations. Use the count tool for each penetration type and the linear tool for parapet perimeters, coping lengths, and edge metal details. Membrane rolls come in standard widths of 6 to 12 feet and typical lengths of 100 feet. Your takeoff needs the total roof area plus 10 percent for seam overlaps and detail work. Create measurement groups that match your bid structure: one group per roof section or per membrane type. For multi-building commercial properties, keep each building as a separate zone so material staging and crew scheduling align with the takeoff. Export to CSV for your estimating spreadsheet or supplier order.

Digital takeoff from properly scaled architectural PDFs matches the designed dimensions to within 1 percent. The accuracy depends entirely on scale calibration. When the scale is set correctly against a known dimension, every measurement matches the architect's design. Architectural roof plans are drawn in CAD at real-world scale, so a building drawn at 60 feet wide is exactly 60 feet in the design file. The advantage of digital takeoff is speed and repeatability. Measuring a complex roof from PDF plans takes 15 to 30 minutes in Easy Takeoffs. The same roof measured by hand with a scale ruler on a paper set takes an hour or more and is prone to rounding errors. Digital measurements can be verified, edited, and exported. Where digital takeoff and reality may differ is in the building itself. Sagging ridge lines, bowed fascia, and settling foundations mean the as-built roof may not perfectly match the drawings. For re-roofs, the existing roof may have been modified, extended, or patched in ways not reflected on the original plans. For new construction, this is not a concern because the plans are the basis for building the roof. Satellite and aerial measurement tools like EagleView report 98 percent accuracy on plan-view footprint but cannot account for pitch, multiple layers, or hidden structural issues. PDF-based takeoff from architectural plans gives you the designed dimensions that the building should match.

A complete roofing takeoff covers 15 or more line items beyond just shingles. The full material list includes: shingles measured in squares (plan-view area times slope factor times waste), synthetic underlayment or felt covering the full deck area with overlap, ice and water shield at eaves, valleys, and around penetrations, starter strip shingles along the full eave and rake perimeter, ridge and hip cap for all ridges and hips in linear feet, drip edge for all eaves and rakes in 10-foot pieces, valley flashing for open or closed valleys, step flashing at all wall-to-roof intersections, counter flashing at chimneys, pipe boots for every plumbing vent, split boots for hot exhaust vents, skylight flashing kits, roofing nails at 2.25 to 3.5 pounds per square, roofing cement and sealant, and ventilation items including ridge vent, box vents, or powered vents. For re-roofs, add a dumpster for tear-off debris. Each square of removed shingles weighs 250 to 300 pounds, so a 30-square single-layer tear-off generates about 4 tons of debris. Budget 1 to 5 percent of the deck area for plywood or OSB replacement for rotted or damaged decking. Missing any of these line items means a second order, a second delivery, and idle crew time.

The slope factor is determined by the roof pitch, expressed as rise over 12 inches of horizontal run. The formula is the square root of (1 plus (rise divided by 12) squared). Here is the complete reference table for standard pitches: 2/12 uses 1.014, 3/12 uses 1.031, 4/12 uses 1.054, 5/12 uses 1.083, 6/12 uses 1.118, 7/12 uses 1.158, 8/12 uses 1.202, 9/12 uses 1.250, 10/12 uses 1.302, 11/12 uses 1.357, 12/12 uses 1.414. The 6/12 pitch is the most common residential pitch, and it means the actual roof surface is 11.8 percent larger than the footprint. On a steep 12/12 pitch (45 degrees), the surface is 41.4 percent larger. If your roof has multiple pitches, apply a different slope factor to each plane. Many homes have a 6/12 main roof with a 4/12 porch and a 3/12 over the garage. Measuring all three at 6/12 overestimates the porch and garage areas and may underestimate the main roof if you picked a lower default. When the plans do not label the pitch, check the building elevations and measure the rise and run from the drawing. If elevations are not available, use a pitch gauge or angle finder during a site visit.

Easy Takeoffs is designed for PDF construction drawings with known scales, not satellite or aerial imagery. For satellite-based roof measurement, tools like EagleView, GAF QuickMeasure, and HOVER specialize in that workflow by using aerial photos and algorithms to calculate roof dimensions. These tools are useful for quick preliminary estimates on existing residential roofs where you do not have architectural plans. However, satellite tools have limitations that PDF-based takeoff does not. Aerial images show the plan-view footprint but cannot see the roof from underneath, so they miss structural issues, multiple tear-off layers, and ventilation deficiencies. Accuracy varies by source: EagleView claims 98 percent but contractors report occasional overages of 100 or more feet of drip edge on complex roofs. Satellite tools also cannot handle new construction where the building does not exist yet. If you have architectural roof plans from the design team, PDF-based takeoff in Easy Takeoffs gives you measurements based on the architect's design dimensions, which is the standard basis for bidding and material ordering. The two approaches serve different scenarios: satellite for quick estimates on existing homes, PDF takeoff for accurate bidding from construction documents.

Calculate underlayment from the total actual roof area (after slope factor) plus 10 to 15 percent for horizontal and end-lap overlaps. Synthetic underlayment rolls cover approximately 1,000 square feet per roll at full coverage without overlaps. With the required 4-inch horizontal overlap and 6-inch end-lap overlap, effective coverage drops to about 850 to 900 square feet per roll. For a 30-square roof (3,000 square feet of actual area), you need 3,000 divided by 875 (average effective coverage), which is about 3.4 rolls, round up to 4 rolls. Fifteen-pound felt underlayment covers about 400 square feet per roll at full coverage, or roughly 350 square feet with overlaps. The same 30-square roof needs about 8.5 rolls of felt, round up to 9. Ice and water shield is calculated separately and covers specific areas: the first 36 to 48 inches up from every eave edge, the full length of every valley, and a piece around every penetration. In cold climates, building code requires ice shield to extend at least 24 inches past the interior wall line measured horizontally. On a 6/12 pitch with standard 12-inch overhang, this means the ice shield needs to reach about 47 inches up the slope from the drip edge, which may require a second course if using 36-inch-wide rolls. Budget ice shield rolls based on eave perimeter linear footage times the required coverage width, plus valley linear footage times 36 inches, plus one piece per penetration.

Yes. Easy Takeoffs includes two roofing templates: Shingle Roof and Flat Roof Membrane. Apply the Shingle Roof template to a measurement group and it calculates shingle bundles, synthetic underlayment rolls, ice and water shield, starter strip, ridge cap, drip edge, and roofing nails from your measured area. You can toggle ice and water shield on or off depending on your climate zone. The Flat Roof Membrane template covers TPO, EPDM, or PVC membrane with seam adhesive, fasteners, and termination bar, plus optional insulation board. Both templates include waste factors and round up to whole units so your order matches what the supplier delivers.

A roofing takeoff measures quantities from the plans. A roofing estimate prices those quantities into a bid. The takeoff answers "how much material and labor?" and the estimate answers "how much will it cost?" The takeoff is the first step: open the roof plans, measure areas and apply slope factors, measure linear runs for accessories, count penetrations, and produce a quantity list organized by material type. The result is raw numbers: 30 squares of shingles, 120 linear feet of ridge cap, 8 pipe boots, 4 rolls of underlayment. The estimate takes those quantities and applies pricing. Material costs come from your supplier. A square of GAF Timberline HDZ runs $100 to $135. Underlayment rolls run $100 to $150. Ridge cap bundles run $50 to $70. Labor pricing is typically $200 to $350 per square for tear-off and installation, with add-ons for steep pitch, high walls requiring ladder jacks or scaffolding, and complex flashings. Overhead includes insurance, crew vehicles, dumpster rental, and your profit margin. A common cost structure for successful roofing contractors is 40 percent materials and 60 percent labor plus overhead. If the takeoff quantities are wrong, the entire estimate cascades from a bad foundation. Being off by 3 squares on a 30-square job does not just cost $390 in shingles. It costs material plus delivery plus crew downtime.