Shingles are a common roofing cover, especially in the United States and Europe. If you plan to do some roofing work with shingles, you will need to count how many shingles bundles you need to cover your roof.
It needs a decent counting so that you will not running out of shingles while doing the work. The main measurement you need to count the shingles is the roof’s width, measured in squares.
While per roofing square equals 100 sqft roof the width, how many bundles of shingles in a square?
How Many Bundles of Shingles in a Square
As mentioned earlier, the measuring unit of roofing is called square; it is equal to 100 square feet of your roof or around 9.29-meter square. The most used shingles type is called strip shingle (three-tab shingle) which is typically packed with three bundles for a square.
So, that should answer your question on how many bundles of shingles in a square: there are three bundles per square.
How Many Shingles in a Bundle
Since you cannot fall short on shingles to cover your roof, you need to know the exact numbers of shingles you need. But the problem is, you may be too lazy to know how many shingles for each bundle. Well, you are not the only one.
It takes a different number to determine how many shingles in a bundle. The number depends on which bundle you are choosing. From our previous explanation, you know how many bundles of shingles in a square are, and it has three bundles per square.
Now the question is different: how many shingles in a bundle?
Per a common three-tab shingle bundle, you will have 29 shingles with standard size (12 in. x 36 in.). This means you will get 87 shingles if you buy a square of three-tab, standard-sized shingles. It may be a little confusing – kindly take your time to comprehend it as a whole.
Let’s delve more into it. After knowing the number of bundles in a square and how many shingles come in a bundle, you may start to wonder, ‘how do I calculate how many shingles I need?’
To count your need for shingles, as usual, you will need to know the width of your roof. If the roof consists of several planes, you can easily add the width.
But how to count a complex roof? Indeed, it is not as easy as a rectangular gable roof. But whatever type of roof it is, the thumb rule is to add each plane’s width.
Below is how to count how many shingles you need in a complex roof.
- You can start with making a simple sketch of your roof. Then, break the sketch into several distinct planes, consisting of rectangles and triangles.
- Using this, then count the width of each plane.
- After that, sum those numbers to count the total width.
- Make sure to convert the measurement into square feet.
- Suppose you find that the summarized number of widths has decimals in it; simply round it up to the nearest hundreds. For instance, if you get 3,365.85 sqft, you can round it to 3,400 sqft.
- Then, divide the number by 100 (as 100 sqft = 1 roofing square)
- That is the exact number of shingles you need. To avoid falling short of shingles, especially for the eaves and ridges part, add 10% from the number you obtained from step 6.
Although there is help out there – shingle calculator – it is quite easier to do it manually. Because the shingles calculator does not work in this case, you own a complex roof.
How Many Architecture Shingles Come in a Bundle?
Once you found out how many bundles of shingles in a square, you may wonder, is it the same as all kinds of shingles? Let’s take an example from architectural shingles.
Read also: Are Architectural Shingles Worth Extra Cost.
Well, you may find many different answers regarding this topic. Some manufacturers sell 4 bundles for a square while the other sell three bundles only. The number of shingles per bundle is also different – some come with 22, the other comes with 26.
For architectural shingles, since manufacturers sell different numbers per bundle, it is always important to count your roof’s width beforehand. Also, it is important to know how many bundles of shingles in a square. That way, you can avoid running out of shingles.
