Maybe you are a new roofer trying to learn about various roof pitches or maybe you are a homeowner reviewing some insurance paperwork for your roof replacement. Regardless, one of the most important factor in the cost of your roof and ordering roofing materials is understand what a roof pitch is and how to measure it.

So, What Exactly Is A Roof Pitch?

The pitch of a roof (or as others call it, the roof slope) is how many inches the roof rises for every 12 inches in depth. For example, if you hear someone say the pitch of the roof is a “9/12 pitch” that means that the roof will rise 9 inches for every 12 inches you move towards the peak.

Now, this is hard to visualize with text only, so check this out.

What Is The Most Common Roof Pitch?

By far the most common roof pitch is a 6/12. This roof is a 6/12 or a 5/12 and you can see how easy it would be to walk on this vs a steep roof.

How Do I Find The Roof Pitch With My Phone?

Smartphones have made it very easy to find the pitch of a roof. In the video below, we go through and show you what some of our favorite applications are to measure the slope of the roof.

Can I Calculate The Roof Pitch From Inside The House?

You can! We know that often it is dangerous to get on top of your roof and make these measurements. If you are in your attic and can locate the rafters and trusses you can use an application on your phone like mentioned in the video above or you can use a ruler to measure the rise and the run.

Do You Have Examples Of All The Roof Pitches?

I don’t have a full list, but I do have lots of pictures and measurements for each roof pitch. Click the links below.

• 1/12 roof pitch
• 2/12 roof pitch
• 3/12 roof pitch
• 4/12 roof pitch
• 5/12 roof pitch
• 6/12 roof pitch
• 7/12 roof pitch
• 8/12 roof pitch
• 9/12 roof pitch
• 10/12 roof pitch
• 11/12 roof pitch
• 12/12 roof pitch

What Pitch Should My Roof Be?

I don’t like low slope roofs and really hate flat roofs. The reason is, the steeper your roof, the faster the water gets off the roof. The longer you have water on your roof, the more chance for problems. So as a general rule, the steeper the roof, the better it is at shedding water.