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Determining Surface Pitch (Roof or Railing)

2:45
13:36
21.5K views

At 2:45 in

Speed Square basics broken Down. 4k video

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What happens here

To determine the pitch of a surface, such as a roof or a deck railing, use a speed square in conjunction with a level. Place the speed square against the surface with the pivot point at the bottom edge. Then, place a level on top of the speed square, ensuring the level is perfectly horizontal (the bubble is centered). Read the number on the 'Common' scale of the speed square where the surface (or the level if extended) intersects. This number represents the pitch, typically expressed as 'X in 12' (e.g., a '4' on the scale indicates a 4/12 pitch).

Goal: Accurately measure the pitch or slope of a surface.

Tools and materials

  • Level Milwaukee Redstick — Ensuring the speed square is held horizontally for accurate pitch reading
  • Pencil M.L. Gordon Company — Pointing to the numbers on the speed square
  • Speed Square — Measuring the pitch of a surface
  • Deck Railing — The surface on which to measure the pitch

What they say

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picture that decorated okay so what we're actually demonstrating right now is how to tell any pitch this could be a rough this happens to be a railing but if you've got to duplicate a pitch for some reason your speed square will tell you no I can't see the numbers but is it well I actually can see the numbers from this side both sides from both sides so let's show these guys what I'm looking at you can see just how easy it is to actually see the pitch so okay I'm gonna jump in here because what I'm about to show you is right but it's also very wrong and we're gonna catch this mistake in just a few moments and it's one of those common mistakes that just about anybody can make because of the way you're reading the square and you're gonna see that in just a minute oh if this was a roof this would be about a two and a quarter pitch yeah can you so let's break this process down a little bit because we kind of jumped into it okay jumped into it assuming they knew what we were talking about so Frankie's got the speed square up there and now what we're gonna be doing this any of your house if you're checking if you want to check your house this would be like the gable end the center going up to the peak and then you level across and width down and then that would read your roofline this would be your roofline yep so this is your roofline this is what we're tell this is this is the part that we're trying to figure out what the pitch is and we got to get the speed square perfectly level and then we're gonna look at the difference so how close are we Frankie pretty darn close and then right from here we can see where our pitch is right there we're not even by one and we'll probably one in three quarters in spits Wow I guess this is your this is your hip and Valley is your second one is your bottom one here is your common that would be your top top cut oh so that's where I see I can't I didn't see that on the side and that's where this can get confusing so this is one of those common mistakes you can make and go why isn't this working I'm glad we pointed this out so let's go I'm gonna go keep it sitting right there yeah I couldn't see where that was the hip and Valley so this is the hip and Valley this is the hip and Valley number I got this here real quick you hold it down more I want to show these guys so this was the hip and Valley number and this was where you were reading the two I was assuming there's a little bit over two but that's wrong so it was the common…

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