How to bid 2 story roofs....

[Scott D.]

Guys, I am having a debate with my wife on how to bid 2 stories. Do you:

1. Measure the outside of the house to get the exact square footage of the roof, or...

2. Use the entire square footage of the house?

[Don M.]

Guys, I am having a debate with my wife on how to bid 2 stories. Do you:

1. Measure the outside of the house to get the exact square footage of the roof, or...

2. Use the entire square footage of the house?

Scott, regardless of one story or two story, we measure the whole house then x by a multiplier for pitch.

If its unwalkable, we throw a pita factor in there as well. I just bid a front side only 10/12 pitch. The front was 80 ft long. My wife says I'll get it, but I dont know. It wasnt cheap.

[PressurePros]

Scott, the pitch definitely has to come into play. Think of yourself as having the ability to put your thumb on the roof's highest peak and flattening the roof. Sort of like a tent.. if you lay it out flat, it takes up more square footage than it does when it is pitched. This is why you need to use a multiplier when factoring pitch.

Here is a good article I found on measuring.

http://www.newenglandmetalroof.com/r...tor-guide.html

[Scott D.]

No no, I understand the pitch and we add one from 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4. But what square footage do you use?

Like this:

3000sqft 2 story house. Its a big square, so if you measure the bottom floor and top floor, each would be 1500sqft so the roof if it was flat would be around 1500 sqft.

So do you take 1500 and multiply it by 1.3 for the pitch or do you use the entire 3000sqft and multiply that by the pitch?

[Thad.]

The area of the roof is 1500 X pitch multiplier.

[PressurePros]

ahhh, I see what you are asking, Scott.. just the footprint of the building's perimeter is used.

[Don M.]

I concurr with Fenner...

[Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa]

Some inexperienced people in roof cleaning will take a 3000 sq ft home, and because it is a 2 story, will divide the sq ft in 1/2, and only charge for 1/2 the sq ft. They take what could have been a 500.00 job, and turn it into a 250.00 one. The fall from 2 stories up may be fatal, or at least paralyzing. We give them perhaps a little break, but never cut a dangerous roof cleaning job right in 1/2.

[PressureWashE]

Hmm, When we were doing roofs, we would go Sq/ft of the Entire House, X 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 up to 2.0 and multiply it by our price per Sq/ft, Ive never done a roof under 600

[cmturner]

We use the footprint of the house for the square footage times the multiplier. That will give you the sqft of the roof then times our per sqft price. Which for a two story is higher than a single story. Why in the world would you use the sqft from multiple floors to figure the price.

Completely just an example but it would be like having a three story parking garage and the PM for some weird reason only wants the top level done but yet you still figure the price based on the total sqft of the garage.