One of the most important parts of every house is the roof. Aside from  protecting home owners from rain,wind and sunlight, it also provides aesthetics to the overall architectural design of a house with a distinct roof style .

Traditionally, when selecting a new roof, a home owner would consider cost, durability, and aesthetics. Achieving these objectives is easy for those who understand the intrinsic especially the cost and durability;

otherwise, it would require efforts to scale the ordeal of being swindled by unscrupulous roofers. But never mind, we would take you through a process that will guide you in making decision about your new roof.

 

Cost

The cost of roofing a house or precisely a 2 or 3 bedroom flat in Nigeria is not cheap and of course, it is important that home owner gets value for every kobo spent on roofing project. The cost of roofing depends on many factors such as the roof pitch, type of roofing material, choice of roof design, location of the project and the roofing company handling the project. For this write-up, we would consider the “pitch roof”.

 

Steps

1. i)Measure the Width(W) and Length(L). Assuming W is 20m and Length is 29m
2. ii)Surface Area = W X L = 20 X 29= 580m²

iii)                Add 20% to the house Area to accommodate the pitch or slope

(the blue arrow indicates the slope of your building)

 

20% of Area= (20% of 580 m²) + 580m² =696m2.

 

We will give details in another post on how to calculate your pitch. However, this method will work just fine.

1. iv) Measure the L and W of each roofing sheet to get the Area

Assuming the L and W are 2.6m and 1.8m respectively

Area   =2.6 x 1.8 =4.68m²

 

1. V)        Total number of roofing sheets needed approximately is

(Area of building x Area of Pitch)/Area of one roofing sheet

696 m²/4.68m = 149 sheets

 

1. VI)       Let assume the cost of roofing sheet is N1,350, then your budget

should be (Total Area of the building X Area of Pitch) X N1,350

696m²  X N1,350= N939,600

 

VII)      Labour is a function of the expertise of your roofer and project location

 

VIII      The measurement can be ascertained from the roof plan or better still

measured physically on the roof carcass at the site.

 

1. IX)        This step will only give you a clue and may vary especially when you have a unique architectural roof style.

 

Durability

Home owners want to enjoy the roof for a reasonable period without a glitch. Glitch could come as a change in colour of the roofing sheet within few months of installation, leakage or completely pooling out of carcass or iron rafter. These glitches may result in loss of valuable items and will amount to extra cost.

The change in colour is usually due to low quality resulting from poor gauge and coating. Ensure you buy your Aluminium sheets, stone coated tiles and other accessories from a trusted supplier like  Supretec Aluminium and Roofing to guide against such glitch.

Leakages and roofing sheets pull out are usually due to poor handling by roofers. A professional roofer like  Supretec Aluminium and Roofing  will monitor the materials at the factory because leakage may occur due to machine fault, supervise the offloading and keep close eye during roof fixation by the team on site

 

Aesthetics

No matter how you have beautifully designed your house and roof on paper, the

actualisation of the roofing beauty in real sense is a function of professionalism.