11 Tips – How to Choose a Roof Color
Texas homeowners spend an average of 12.8 years in their home before moving. The average Texas roof life is 12-15 years, but hailstorms are possible every 4-9 years.
So it is likely you will need to replace your roof once or twice while you live there. Choosing a roof color is an important decision, one that you could have to look at for the next 12 years.
These 11 tips on how to choose a roof color will help you understand the importance of the color you choose.
Why is Roof Color Important?
The main reason roof color is important is so that it doesn’t clash with the look of your home. Having an excellent curb appeal is clearly a selling factor when you decide to list your home.
Your roof makes up about 40% of the exterior of your home, that is a lot of influence on the way your home looks.
Additionally, color choice will affect the energy efficiency of the roof. Choosing the wrong color could cost you on your electric bill.
How to Choose a Roof Color – 11 Tips
1. Choose a Roof Color that Compliments the Brick
Texas suburbs are filled with brick and rock homes. So when choosing a roof color, it is essential to consider the color of the brick or rock.
Austin stone accents are used in brick homes regularly. They can lighten up the brick color enough so that you can use a darker colored roof.
2. Choose a Roof Color that Compliments the Siding Color
Although many houses are brick and rock, Texas has no shortage of siding homes either. Many homes are a blend of 80% brick and 20% siding, in some cases, siding is as much as 40% of the house.
The siding, fascia, and window trim are often painted to accentuate the house. It may be wise then to consider matching the roof color to the siding or trim colors.
3. Choose a Roof Color that is Energy Efficient
Roof color impacts the energy efficiency of a roof significantly. Just by choosing a dark roof color, you could affect your energy cost by as much as 40% more than if you had chosen the lightest color.
4. Choose a Roof Color that Accent Features
Sometimes choosing a roof color will depend on the features of your home. A house with a steep pitch will show more roof than a low pitched roof.
A roof color that is overbearing for a steep roof maybe to understated for a very flat roof. Dormers can also make a difference by adding complexity to the roof. Complex roofs may look better with less “busy” roof colors.
Simple roofs look more attractive with more complex roof colors.
5. Choose a Roof Color for Different Materials
Your home may have different roofing materials used on it; typically, the materials used will reflect the roof style.
For example, you may have a shingle roof with metal roof accents on a turret or a copper on bay windows. Choosing colors that work well together and then also fit the home becomes the objective.
6. Choose a Roof Color and Material that Acceuntates Your Architecture
There are specific architectural designs that demand a particular look, color, and material.
A modern house may have a flat roof, which TPO would be the best material. TPO is nearly always white, gray, or black.
Mediterranean Houses look the best with tile roofs. Oranges, reds, and browns being the most common colors. Some homes look great with a mixture of standing seam metal roofing and a luxury asphalt shingle.
It all depends on the characteristics of your home. You would not want to put a tile roof on a Craftsman-style home just as putting a wood shake design on a Spanish Mediterranean house would look off as well.
7. Choose a Roofing Company for Roof Color Choice Consultation
One of the easiest ways to choose is to consult a professional roofing company.
Roofing companies install hundreds of roofs each year and know which are the most popular colors, the most energy-efficient, and they usually have a good idea as to which color will look the best with your house. Additionally, they will be able to tell you which shingles are in-stock and which are a special order color and might cost more.
8. Choose a Roof Color that is HOA Approved
If you live in a neighborhood with an HOA, your decision might have already been made for you. Checking with you HOA before choosing a color can save you some headaches.
Also, you can get an idea by looking at the roof colors on your neighbor’s houses. This is always a great way, especially in many Texas tract-home subdivisions because other homes should have your exact floor plan.
Compare and contrast the way their roofs look with their brick. If you are lucky, your builder may not have offered that many brick colors and you can find your exact house with a different roof color.
9. Choose a Roof Color that Hides Your Roof
So far we have been discussing how to make your roof stand out and look it’s best, however, your objective maybe just to hide it.
If this is your goal, then some colors do that better than others like dark charcoal or black. Some tan colors may do this as well, depending on the primary color of the house.
10. Choose a Roof Color that is Right for Geography
Manufactures only provide specific shingle colors for certain areas of the country. If you lived up north and loved a shingle color, you may find that in the south, it is not offered.
Natural light casts different spectrums of light based on your position on earth. The further north you go, the sun will cast blue tones, but closer to the equator, the more warm and orangy the tones become.
Albeit, this seems to be a minor effect, it does have an ultimate impact on the appearance of the shingles as the light is refracted off the roof.
11. Choose a Roof Color You Enjoy
Studies show that color affects our moods and emotions. While some colors incite excitement, others instill calmness.
Choose a roof color that you will enjoy. The color that makes you feel the best when you are relaxing in your backyard or weeding your flowerbeds. That is the color you should choose.
Conclusion
Your choice for a roof color and even material will vary greatly depending on what you value the most. Perhaps it is the curb appeal that you care about most, or it is the impact on the environment or just the effect on your enjoyment. Be it peace of mind or money in your wallet that motivates you, use the 11 tips on how to choose a roof color.
