HOW DO I
WHY DOES
F I G U R E W H AT
PITCH I NEED?
Though it may not be apparent,
geometry directly applies to the
pitch of a roof! How you may
ask?
The Pythagorean Theorem and
the Law of Sines and Cosines!
The Pythagorean theorem allows
you to determine the Truss side
lengths, and the Law of Sine and
Law of Cosine helps you
determine angle!
IS YO UR RO OF
RI GH T FOR
PITCH
YOU?
M AT T E R ?
The pitch of your roof determines
whether snow, water, and other things
run off of your roof easily! Buying a new home is a lot of
As different climates have different responsibility, and requires a lot of
extremes (extreme snow in the thought. Therefore, when you’re buying
mountains, extreme sun in deserts,
a home, you want to consider all aspects
and extreme rain in the rain forest), of the home, including the roof!

homes in each climates need to best Different climates require different
protect the home from the
architectural aspects, most importantly
environment! the pitch (angle) of the roof, as it is
responsible for protecting your home
AURORA TURMELLE from weather!
Practicum Fall 2018
University of Maine at Farmington
aurora.turmelle@maine.edu
 HOW DO I KNOW IF MY ROOF IS
RIGHT FOR WHERE I LIVE?
Here’s an examples of determining which roof is best for a given climate, and the math behind it!

Example Problem: You have a house built in a climate where, on

average, there is about three feet of rain per year, and with an average
of 18 inches of rain during the winter time. The house has a rectangular
Figure 1
base, with the dimensions 12 feet by 20 feet. However, in the design on
In order to figure out what roof is the house, the home owner was insistent that the top of the truss was a
best for you, consider where you live
90 degree angle, making the two legs that create the angle unequal, and
and what your roof needs to protect
your home from. If you need to to having each leg extend two feet beyond each of the walls. Given the
protect from snow, you want a steep
pitch (angle) so the snow will slide information above, determine which pitch would be best for the house
right off, but, you live in a dry climate, in it’s given climate to best protect most of the house for the weather
you may not even need trusses (the
triangles that help form your pitched (using figure 1), and find the length of the truss legs for the given pitch,
roof, instead it could be flat!
and explain which method you used.
As described by the website
thisoldhouse.com:

“The angle, or pitch, of a roof is calculated by
See separate sheet of paper for the work.

the number of inches it rises vertically for Hint: the best angle is a 10-in-12 pitch.
every 12 inches it extends horizontally. For
example, a roof that rises 6 inches for every
12 inches of horizontal run has a 6-in-12
pitch.”
Works Cited:

thisoldhouse.com

https://www.roofingcalc.com/roof-pitch/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pythagorean.svg

https://pixabay.com/en/houses-set-architecture-clip-art-1094900/

https://i1.wp.com/www.roofingcalc.com/wp-content/uploads/