When figuring the amount of shingles needed to roof a house you first convert the total square footage of the roof to squares a square represents 100 square feet of area covered by shingles.
How many squares of shingles for my roof.
In other words if you buy 3 bundles of shingles this will cover one square which is 100 sq ft of area.
How many shingles in a square once you have a three bundle pack to cover a square you will have 29 x 12 inches by 36 inch standard sized shingles per bundle.
Asphalt shingles range in price from about 25 per bundle for a standard 3 tab style to around 50 75 or more for an upgraded architectural style.
As a rule of thumb there are 3 bundles to a square assuming that you are using three tab strip shingles.
Another rule of thumb that can give you a ballpark estimate of the roof area on newly built roofs is to look at the number of sheets of plywood used for the roof deck.
It is common to use 3 bundles to a square of shingles.
When you are using 3 bundles for a square you will be getting 29 standard shingles in each bundle.
A square of shingles is the number of shingles needed to cover 100 sq feet of roof area.
Each plywood sheet is 4 x 8 feet or 32 square feet which coincidentally is almost exactly equivalent to the coverage of one bundle of traditional three tab shingles.
The most common is to have three bundles of shingles for a square of roof area.
However if you are using heavier shingles you will require 4 to 5 bundles for a square.
The hardest part is how you determine the number of bundles it requires you to order to cover all your roof areas.