Minimum Roof Pitch Angle

So if your roof rises 4 inches for every 12 inches of horizontal length then the pitch of your roof is expressed as 4 12.

Minimum roof pitch angle.

A 12 12 pitch roof has a pitch angle of 45. The short simple answer is 2 12 has traditionally been considered the absolute minimum acceptable roof slope suitable for asphalt shingles. So the pitch of a roof is determined by how many inches the slope rises for every 12 inches it runs horizontally. A 4 12 pitch is around 18 5 degrees but not exactly.

What is the minimum slope for an asphalt shingle roof. A ratio is the most common way of expressing roof pitch or roof slope but degrees are also possible. On blue prints architects engineers usually display the pitch of a roof in the format shown on the image where number 4 represents a rise and number 12 represents a length. The 2 12 number is rise over run or two units of vertical for every 12 units horizontal.

That works out to about nine degrees if that works better for you. If a roof increases in height by four inches for every foot of horizontal run it is considered to have a 4 in 12 pitch or just a 4 pitch talk in terms of pitches and you will always be understood in the roofing universe. Divide the first part of the ratio by 12 to work out the pitch. To convert between american roofing ratios and pitch degrees follow these steps.

However it is regrettable that many installers usually ignore this requirement due to the desire for a quick installation process. The minimum requirement is 2 12. However you can only use this pitch with built up roofing or specialized synthetic roofing. This means if a roof rises 4 in the length of 12 your roof pitch would be 4 12 or 18 43 degrees.

Find the inverse tangent of the pitch to find the angle in degrees. A shingle roof like this north dallas garage in the photo above may have a failure no matter how good a job the installer did. The recommended minimum roof pitch for shingles is 2 12 or simply two units of vertical rise to every twelve units of horizontal span. You can also calculate roof pitch even without using a roof slope calculator.

The picture below shows the pitch of a 7 12 roof slope meaning that for 12 of horizontal measurement roof run the vertical measurement roof rise is 7. Roof pitch and corresponding angles. Asphalt shingles continue to be the most widely installed roof covering option in north america. Use the following formula which also describes a right triangle.

The minimum pitch for a roof is 1 4 12 which translates to 1 4 inch rise to 12 inches of run.