Speed Square Roof Pitch

Now divide the rise by the multiplier to get the pitch eg.

Speed square roof pitch. You can use a speed square to find pitches. A speed square is a tool that just about every carpenter will have in her bag. Then place a torpedo level on the fat base of the rafter square and adjust the square until the level is level and read the pitch on the side of the rafter square. The key is a protractor function that identifies the common and rare roof pitches.

Finding the pitch of a roof is simple with a speed square. Swing the square until you read the desired angle on the board s edge and make your mark. A speed square will have two specialty protractor angle guides on the inside of the tool which has both common rafter angles and hip valley angles marked out. The pitch of this roof is 4 8 12.

The swanson speed square is a popular tool with most carpenters. The best rating speed is quite expensive which quickly begins to get any roof. 48 10 4 8. As a matter of fact finding the pitch of a roof was the motivating factor for how this tool was invented in the first place hence it s official name the rafter square.

Common roof pitches set as grow inches over a twelve inch run. So the common roof square is measured by the textbook guidance above the protractor. And it can be used to mark any angle between 0 and 90 degrees across a board s face. To find the pitch just place the pivot point against the shingles.

Constructing a new shed roof at the desired pitch is as easy as knowing how to use a speed square. As stated in the video speed squares have useful markings on them from 0 to 12. You can also use a speed square to find level if you re on the job without a spirit level. There are many other ways the speed square can be used but i will focus on these two in this tutorial.

You can use the speed square to mark an angle such as when cutting a rafter tail by holding the pivot point against the board. Therefore if your roof rises 4 inches over the course of 12 inches of horizontal run then your roof pitch is 4 12. Simply brace the lipped side of the speed square against the edge of your board pencil a line up the hypotenuse of the speed square and voilà. The triangle shaped square was invented in 1925 by albert swanson to provide a quick accurate method for marking rafters.

It can be used to make lines perpendicular square to a board s edge.