How Much Does A Bundle Of Roofing Shingles Weigh?

You’ve probably always dismissed the weight of shingles as something that only your roofing contractor needs to be all that concerned with. After all, they give you the assessment and feasibility of a given material being used, and they’re the ones removing the old roof and putting the new one on. You’re not lifting anything, right?

Well, you may be surprised to realize that the weight of shingles does have ramifications for you in the fact that you have to do something with those old, discarded shingles. See, most contractors don’t provide disposal of these materials, which places the rental of a dumpster and the hauling away/disposal of the old materials firmly on your shoulders as the homeowner.

It’s easy to just think “I’ll overestimate by a likely wide margin and be done with it”. If you’re independently wealthy, then sure, that works fine, but for most people, budgets matter. If you overestimate by these deliberate margins, you’re throwing money out the window. Conversely, if you try to be accurate, but merely make an educated guess, you could badly undershoot, which causes all manner of logistical problems in the long run.
Let’s take a look at some roofing concepts that will help you to estimate the weight of these materials, so you can make an educated choice in handling this aspect of roof replacement without going bankrupt.

Understanding Roofing Square
In roofing terms, when it comes to shingles, this is the most basic unit with which they measure things. It’s not a square foot, but rather about 100 square feet. So, following that logic, a 1000 square foot roof is 10 roofing squares.

Now, this isn’t the unit shingles come in – no, that’d be too easy, wouldn’t it? Shingles come in bundles, which are about 1/3 of a roofing square. So, our theoretical 1000 square foot roof (that’s a pretty big house), which is 10 roofing squares, comes up to about 30 bundles of shingles.

Now, if that’s not enough math to confound you, try thickness/durability on for size, which can reduce this to a quarter of a square in some cases. Generally, the thicker and more durable the shingle, the less area it will cover.

Hard(ish) Figures
So, now that we understand that the coverage area of a bundle can fluctuate, we can give a general range of how much a bundle of shingles weighs. A single square can weigh between 150-240 pounds, with a single bundle being between 50-80 pounds. With this information, we can do a very simple calculation: [Bundle weight] x [bundles] x [number of layers] = our weight estimate.

Now, this won’t be a figure with NASA level precision, but it suffices, just fine, for calculating the general amount of roofing waste you need to store and dispose of. Always round up.

To learn more about roofing concepts and basic calculations for weight, cost and more, fill out our contact form or call us today!