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How to Estimate How Many Pounds of Roofing Nails Are Needed

April Ort

Working on the roof can be a dangerous job, and reducing the trips up and down is one way to lessen the risk of injury. You can estimate the amount of roofing nails needed for a job by implementing some elementary math into to your supply planning. If you know the size of the roof you will be working on, you can easily come up with a general idea of how many pounds of roofing nails are needed.

Estimate the amount of roofing nails
  1. Measure each area of the roof, in feet, to determine how many shingles will be needed.

  2. Multiply the length of each area by the width to determine the square footage.

  3. Add the amount of square footage for each area together. This will give you the entire square footage of the roof and will allow you to estimate the number of shingles, and thus nails, needed.

  4. Divide the entire square footage by 100 to reach the estimated amount of shingles needed.

  5. Multiply the estimated amount of shingles by 2 to 2 1/2. The resulting figure is an estimate of the pounds of nails needed.