How Many Shingles for a 1,000 Square Foot House?
Roofing squares needed
12.3 squares
A 1,000 square foot footprint, 40 by 25, at a 6/12 pitch with ten percent waste.
When the figures look right, the roofing material list downloads as a real PDF with your business details on it, built inside your own browser. Nothing you type is uploaded anywhere.
How that number is worked out
These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.
- Building length40 ft
- Building width25 ft
- Roof pitch, rise per 12 in6 /12
- Waste allowance10 %
- Ridge length, 0 if unknown40 ft
Roofing squares needed12.3 squares
| Footprint area | 1,000 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Slope multiplier at 6/12 | 1.12 x |
| Actual roof surface | 1,118 sq ft |
| Squares before waste | 11.2 |
| Squares with 10% waste | 12.3order to this number |
The material list this produces
| Shingles, bundles (3 per square) | 37 |
|---|---|
| Synthetic underlayment, rolls (10 sq each) | 2 |
| Starter strip, linear ft | 156 |
| Ridge cap, linear ft | 40 |
| Drip edge, linear ft | 130 |
| Roofing nails, lb | 27 |
Roof pitch compared
Same house, five pitches.
| Roof pitch | Roofing squares needed |
|---|---|
| 4/12 | 11.6 squares |
| 6/12 | 12.3 squares |
| 8/12 | 13.2 squares |
| 10/12 | 14.3 squares |
| 12/12 | 15.6 squares |
What else matters here
A thousand square feet of house is not a thousand square feet of roof. At a 6/12 pitch the roof surface is 1,118 square feet, because the plane climbs six inches for every twelve it runs and that diagonal is longer than the ground beneath it. Order to the footprint and you are a square short before you start.
What this calculator assumes
- Footprint times the slope multiplier gives the actual roof surface. A 6/12 roof is 11.8 percent larger than the ground it covers, which is the number most people forget.
- Three bundles per square is standard for both three tab and architectural shingles. Check your brand, a few premium lines run four.
- Synthetic underlayment is figured at 10 squares per roll, starter and ridge cap at one linear foot per foot.
Questions people ask
How many bundles of shingles for a 1,000 sq ft house?
About 37 bundles at a 6/12 pitch with ten percent waste, which is 12.3 squares. A flatter 4/12 roof over the same house needs 35, and a steep 12/12 needs 47.
Is 1,000 square feet the roof or the house?
This page treats it as the house footprint. The roof over it is larger by the slope multiplier, and both numbers are shown above.
How many squares is a 1,000 sq ft roof?
If you have measured the roof planes themselves and they total 1,000 square feet, that is 10 squares before waste and 11 after. No pitch multiplier is needed, because the pitch is already in a measurement taken on the roof.
The roofing calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.