Some colors and styles are not in stock and may take lots longer to arrive, that is if they can even get. This is important to check on upfront before you start narrowing it down. Color AvailabilityĬolor availability within your area can be a huge factor. But, the overall look and feel of the roof needs to flow well with the design of your exterior. For instance, if you are building a modern farmhouse, a cedar shake shingle would not normally look the best with this type of design.Īlso, choosing a darker roof tends to make the home look smaller, while a lighter one makes it look a bit larger. Home by: McCown DesignĬhoosing a shingle should compliment the design of your home. Your Home’s Architectural Design Example of designer shingles.

Because we live in an area with drastic season change, this wasn’t a huge issue for us. This would be a huge factor if you were living in an extreme climate area. Choosing a lighter shingle will allow for your home to stay cooler. So, if you choose a darker roof, your home will stay warmer and absorb the heat more. I guess this makes sense, but I just never thought about it. Due to the color, it can change your attic temperature anywhere from 20-40 degrees. The color of your shingle can make a huge difference in the heating and cooling of your home. This is one I didn’t even think about until we started looking for shingles this go around. If your neighborhood doesn’t have any restrictions on roofing, you may want to ask yourself if you are going to stick to the overall look of the neighborhood or be different. This will for sure give you a starting point or even make for a quick decision in some cases. Some neighborhoods have guidelines and restrictions that only allow you to choose from certain exterior roofing colors and materials. The very first thing to consider is neighborhood restrictions. Throughout all of our crazy mind changing, considering these five things ultimately helped us choose a roof color. As our new build progression has been going a little slowly due to weather, we had a few extra weeks to make up our mind. It didn’t help that we had lots of extra time to make our decision. We have changed our minds so many times throughout this process.

Since we had finally decided the type of shingle we were going to use, all we had to do was choose a color. Then we started looking at the designer composite shingles, but after much thought and research, decided that even though they look really cool, we couldn’t justify the price difference. After comparing prices, on cedar vs composite, and learning more about the upkeep and cons associated with cedar, we quickly decided to go the composite route. GAF Timberline HD Charcoal on our current houseįrom the beginning, Henry and I had in our minds we were for sure going with cedar shake roofing.

Onyx roof shingles