Which of the following items would not be used to calculate the length of the ridge for a hip roof constructed on a simple rectangular building?

The length of the ridge for a hip roof is determined by a variety of factors, but the building width is not directly used in this calculation.

The roof slope (or pitch) is crucial as it informs how steep the roof will be and affects the length of the rafters, which in turn impacts the ridge length. The rafter length is also essential since it establishes how far the rafters will extend from the ridge to the eaves, thereby influencing the ridge's total length. Additionally, the run of the roof is significant; it represents the horizontal distance from the building's center to the outer edge of the eave, which is directly related to the slope of the roof and helps to establish the geometry of the roof structure.

In contrast, the building width indicates the overall distance across the structure and does not have a direct bearing on the calculation of the ridge length for a hip roof. Ridge length is primarily a function of the roofing geometry rather than the dimensions of the building itself.