Solution · Measured from imagery, before the truck rolls

Satellite roof measurement for the roofs you have not driven yet.

Aerial and satellite imagery gives a roof's size in squares, its planes and its pitch, without a ladder. The real question is which roofs deserve measuring, because a report on every house in a subdivision burns the budget.

Roof measurement from imagery is settled technology, accurate enough on a typical residential roof. What has changed is the price of asking on a house you have no relationship with yet.

A certified measurement report costs money per roof and takes minutes to hours to come back. That is fine for pricing a job, and unworkable for prospecting: you would pay to measure two hundred roofs to find the fifteen that need one.

Two jobs hide under one phrase: 'measure this roof precisely enough to order materials' and 'tell me roughly how big it is, so I know if it is worth my morning.' Buying the first for the second is the expensive mistake.

How to measure roofs from satellite imagery

1
Draw the area instead of picking an address
Measurement tools start from one address. Start from the area instead: put a polygon around the neighborhood or ZIP you work. Scanning new ground costs nothing and has no size limit, so the first pass can be a whole subdivision.
2
A size on every roof, the full measurement on the ones you shortlist
Wherever the building outline is mapped, each ranked roof gets a size in squares (100 sq ft each). Shortlisted and opened roofs also get plane count and pitch free, because a cut-up, steep roof costs more than its squares suggest.
3
Check the date on the picture you measured from
A measurement is only as current as its imagery, and aerial imagery is often years old, so every roof carries its capture date. Street-level imagery is newer than the aerial on roughly 85% of roofs, by about five years, so both dates are shown and the newer picture wins.
4
Use the size to filter, not to quote
Set a minimum square count and drop everything below it: a 12-square ranch and a 45-square two-storey are different mornings. Pair it with the condition read, and never put an imagery-derived number in front of a homeowner as a price.
5
Order the certified report once someone says yes
When a homeowner agrees to an inspection and you need a number you can defend (materials, a contract, an insurance supplement), a measurement report earns its fee. That is one report for a job you are likely to win, not two hundred for jobs that do not exist yet.

Satellite, aerial and drone measurement are not the same thing

The three words describe different sources. Satellite imagery is what most free tools read. It covers almost everywhere and handles area and plane count, but struggles with steep pitches and tree canopy. Aerial imagery is flown from aircraft at higher resolution; paid measurement vendors use it, and adjusters accept it. Rural coverage is thin and may be years old. Drone measurement is flown by you over one property: the most accurate, but an inspection tool, not a prospecting one. For deciding which roofs to visit, satellite is enough. Its weakness is currency, not accuracy: the picture has a date.

What a square count does not tell you

Roof area is the first number everyone asks for, and rarely the one that decides a job. A 16-square roof with granule loss in the valleys is worth more of your time than a 30-square roof in good condition. Plane count and pitch change the labour, not the material: a 4/12 gable and a cut-up 9/12 hip with the same square count are different jobs. So the measurement sits next to the condition read. The size tells you how big the job is. The condition tells you whether there is a job.

Where EagleView and HOVER are the right purchase

No imagery-derived estimate replaces a certified measurement report, and pretending otherwise would waste your money. Order the report when the number leaves your building: a contract price, a materials order, an insurance supplement. You are paying for its stated accuracy and a document you can produce. Use a free estimate when the number stays inside: which streets to work, which roofs clear your minimum size, what goes on Tuesday's route. Most shops need both. The mistake is using the expensive one for the cheap job.

FAQ

›How accurate is satellite roof measurement?

For a typical residential roof, area computed from a building footprint and an imagery-derived pitch is close enough to decide whether a roof is worth a visit, and no closer. It degrades on very steep pitches, heavy tree cover and complex roofs with many small planes. It is not a substitute for a certified measurement report when you need a number you can defend to a homeowner or an adjuster.

›Can I measure a roof from satellite for free?

Roofbird estimates roof size in squares wherever the building outline is mapped, and measures plane count and pitch on the roofs you shortlist or open. Scanning new ground costs nothing at any size. That is a prospecting estimate rather than a report: it tells you how big the roof is so you can decide whether to go, not what to charge when you get there.

›What is a roofing square?

One square is 100 square feet of roof surface. A typical single-family home is somewhere between 15 and 30 squares. Roof area is always larger than the footprint of the house, because the pitch stretches the surface, which is why a pitch estimate has to be part of any measurement taken from a top-down image.

›Is aerial roof measurement better than satellite?

Aerial imagery is flown from aircraft at higher resolution than satellite, so a measurement taken from it is more precise, and it is what the paid report vendors use. For prospecting the difference rarely changes a decision, and the more important question is how old the image is: a precise measurement of a roof that was replaced last year is still wrong.

›How old is the imagery a roof was measured from?

It varies by area and is often a mosaic of several flights, so one neighborhood can carry images years apart. Every roof shows the capture date of the image it was judged from, and where the ground-level Street View is newer than the overhead tile (which it is on roughly 85% of roofs, by about five years), the newer picture is the one that decides.

Size up every roof in your area before you drive to one.

Draw your area and scan it for nothing. Every roof comes back ranked on its condition, with a size wherever the outline is mapped. 10 free credits. No card.

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