Why we built PitchGauge
Because every roof pitch calculator on the internet asks you for a number you do not have yet.
The gap we kept running into
Search for a roof pitch calculator and you will find dozens of them. Every single one starts the same way: enter your rise and run. That is fine if you already know them. But the person searching usually does not. They are standing in a loft with a phone and a tape measure, or looking up at a roof from the driveway, trying to work out what they have got.
The advice those sites give is always the same, and always the same disappointment: go and download an angle finder app. So the tool sends you somewhere else to do the actual work, then asks you to come back and type the answer in.
PitchGauge closes that loop. The pitch gauge reads the tilt sensor already in your phone, straight from the browser. Hold the phone against a rafter and the pitch appears. No app store, no account, no second device.
21free calculators
0sign-ups required
IRC + BScode-cited figures
What we actually do
The site is built around three things a person needs, in the order they need them.
Measure
Work out an unknown pitch. The phone gauge is the fast route. The pitch finder covers the cases where you have a tape measure but no sensor, and the speed square reference translates whatever you have into a mark on the tool in your hand.
Convert
Turn that pitch into whatever the next person needs. A saw wants degrees. An American spec sheet wants X/12. A British roofer wants degrees again but against a different standard. A material supplier wants square metres. All of it is the same triangle, and all of it is here.
Build
Get from a pitch to the thing you are making. Rafter lengths with the ridge deduction already taken off. Hip backing angles. How many bundles to order. Whether the covering you want is even legal at that slope. The rafter tool prints a cut sheet, because a number on a phone screen is no use halfway up a ladder.
How we handle accuracy
Roofing is a trade where a wrong number costs real money, so we try to make ours checkable rather than asking you to take them on faith.
- Formulas are published. Each tool shows the arithmetic it used. You can reproduce any result with a scientific calculator.
- Code figures carry their source. Minimum slopes come from the International Residential Code 2021, Chapter 9, and BS 5534 for the UK tables. The section number sits next to the figure.
- Limits are stated plainly. The snow load tool tells you it covers balanced loads only. The cost tool tells you it is a budget range, not a quote. We would rather say what a tool does not do than have you find out on site.
We are not your engineer
These tools are for estimating, checking and planning. Anything structural, and anything that has to satisfy an inspector, needs a licensed professional and your local code. We say this on the tools themselves too, because it matters more than the convenience does.
Who it is for
Carpenters setting out a roof. Roofers pricing a job. Homeowners trying to understand a quote before they sign it. Solar installers checking a tilt. Shed builders, barn restorers, loft converters, and people who just want to know what that number on the drawing means.
The site is free and stays free. There is no premium tier, no gated calculator and no export you have to pay for. Everything runs in your browser, which means nothing you type is sent to us, and a tool page that has finished loading keeps working in a loft with no signal.
Get in touch
Found a number that looks wrong? Know a tool we are missing? Want to work together? Email us at collaborationdesk@gmail.com, or use the contact page. Corrections get read first and fixed fastest.
Start with the one that matters
If you do not know your pitch yet, the gauge is the fastest way to find out.