Shingles for 1,500 Square Feet

50 Bundles if 1,500 Sq Ft Is the Roof — More if It Is the House

How many bundles of shingles for 1,500 square feet?

About 50 bundles if 1,500 square feet is the roof surface, at three bundles per square with 10% waste. If it is the footprint of the house and the roof is a 6/12 pitch, the roof is 1,677 square feet and it takes about 56 bundles.

How many bundles of shingles you need for 1,500 square feet depends entirely on whether that figure is the roof surface or the floor area of the house, and most people mean the house. If 1,500 square feet is the roof itself, it takes about 50 bundles at three per square with 10% waste. If it is the footprint and the roof is a standard 6/12 pitch, the roof surface is larger — about 1,677 square feet — and it takes about 56 bundles. The tables below give both, at every common pitch.

Is 1,500 square feet the roof, or the house?

This is what decides the answer, and most people mean the house. A roof is always larger than the footprint under it, because it is sloped — by 5% at 3/12 and by 41% at 12/12. Ordering against the footprint is the single most common reason a shingle order comes up short.

Bundles for 1,500 square feet, both readings
If 1,500 sq ft is…	Roof area	Squares +10%	Bundles at 3/square
The roof surface itself	1,500 sq ft	16.5	50
The footprint, roof at 3/12	1,546 sq ft	17	52
The footprint, roof at 4/12	1,581 sq ft	17.4	53
The footprint, roof at 6/12	1,677 sq ft	18.4	56
The footprint, roof at 8/12	1,803 sq ft	19.8	60
The footprint, roof at 10/12	1,953 sq ft	21.5	65
The footprint, roof at 12/12	2,121 sq ft	23.3	71

Three bundles per square, 10% waste for a simple gable. A hip roof runs 15% and a cut-up roof with several valleys up to 20%.

The same figures at a higher waste factor

Bundles for 1,500 square feet of roof, by waste factor
Waste	Suits	Squares	Bundles
10%	Simple gable, no valleys	16.5	50
15%	Hip roof	17.2	52
20%	Cut-up roof, several valleys	18	55

What else 1,500 square feet of roof takes

Underlayment: about 2 synthetic rolls at 10 squares each, or 5 rolls of 15 lb felt.
Nails: roughly 3,960 on a four-nail pattern with architectural shingles, which is about 28.3 pounds.
Sheathing, if the deck is being replaced: about 52 sheets of 4x8.
Starter strip, drip edge, ridge cap, valley metal and step flashing — all measured along an edge, none of them derivable from the area.
Ice barrier at the eaves in any climate that freezes, extending at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line.

Ordering practicalities

Order the whole roof at once and check the lot numbers on delivery — colour varies between production runs.
Unopened bundles usually go back for credit; opened ones do not, so order slightly over rather than exactly.
A square of architectural shingles weighs around 250 pounds, so 1,500 square feet of roof is roughly 1.9 tons — a boom delivery, not a pickup.
Check bundles per square on the wrapper. Three is standard, but heavyweight designer lines are four and premium profiles five.

Frequently asked questions

How many bundles of shingles do I need for 1,500 square feet?

About 50 bundles if 1,500 square feet is the roof surface, at three bundles per square with 10% waste. If it is the footprint of the house and the roof is a 6/12 pitch, the roof is about 1,677 square feet and it takes about 56 bundles.

How many squares is 1,500 square feet of roof?

15 squares before waste, since a roofing square is exactly 100 square feet of finished roof. With 10% waste added you would order against 16.5 squares.

Does the pitch change how many bundles I need?

Only if you are working from the footprint. Pitch does not change the bundles per square — it changes how many square feet of roof sit above a given footprint, which is 5% more at 3/12 and 41% more at 12/12.

Should I order extra?

Slightly. Unopened bundles usually go back for credit, but a second delivery for three bundles costs a trip charge and stops the crew for half a day — and on a stripped roof that is a weather risk as well as a cost.