In college a mate told me "taste is a matter of taste." This might be true for a shirt or shoe style but when you pick a roof, resale and architectural truths become determining forces. If you let the ex-con roofer pick your $15,000.00 roof and have decided that a well trained professional cannot do a better job, then just hang up now, because that's what you do when you terminate the Internet connection. Maybe you should let let your yard man or your waiter purvey your furniture for you too.
But if you decide to make your home reach it's full potential, with cost in mind of course, then you might want to read the next few paragraphs. Otherwise buzz off and quit using electricity, unless you have renewable wind or solar.
The Frank Lloyd Wright homes to the Cap Cod with dormers have different needs. We've already discussed color and the old hag won, but today I shall come out on top. I'm King of the World Ma! Oops, Cagney died in that scene. Never saw the movie but I've seen that clip many times.
In the beginning, right after mud huts and log cabins, in New England, there was the Colonial or Early American style. Later the old Red Coat style called Tudor Style came into fashion. Here we go slate, slate slate. A wood look is okay, but slate or stone is best. Just think New England. So if you don't go real slate or TrueSlate, you can go with Certainteed's Symphony or the asphaltic Slateline, Country Mansion, Camelot, Grand Manor, Highland Slate, or Carriage House.The Capstone reminds one of cut stone, almost a slate.
If you have a lower slope, the face of the shingle becomes less important and the butt end becomes prominent. Here comes the heavy wood look like the Certainteed Presidential or GAF Sequoia. Both of these have big brothers that are really massive.
French Colonial is right their with a slate look but I believe tile looks bad here. Tile like Gerard or the less impressive Decra look good on French Colonial, Spanish, or even Ranch.
Ranch looks good with the wood look products right down to the good old Timberline, America's favorite roof. If you budget does not allow for the designer shingles, Timberline is a great second choice, but be sure to get the High Definition version and not the lame Natural Shadow. Think of it as a builder grade.
Most manufacturers have virtual remodelers on their websites that allow you to select a style of home close to yours and then modify the brick, paint, roof style and color. The better ones allow you to download a picture of your home, or any random home you want, and then manipulate it to your heart's content.
Remember that if you choose the wrong color and style, it may be up their for a long time. But other hot buttons exist like energy efficient high emissivity roofs and impact resistant roof that can help lower your premiums and even keep you from going through the reroof process after a hail storm.
Color trumps style but a cheap roof looks cheap. On many homes the roof makes the first impression and that is the one that lasts.
Showing posts with label roof color. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roof color. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
How to Choose A Roof, Part One: Color
Women get it. They know how to choose and match. A well dressed man has a good woman dressing him. Face it, guys would put plaid on plaid, strips on stripes, polka dots on stripes...with no underwear. A side note, roofing uses a lot of dress making terms: selvage, head lap, blocking out, and ouch.
The same principles that robing yourself well, as opposed to disrobing, apply to selecting a roof color. If you read robbing, rather than robing, then you were thinking of your last roofer.For example, if you have a white brick, don't use whiteroofing. If your brick is plaid, or as we say, variegated, try to stick with a less mottled roof pattern. Solid bricks colors lend themselves to wild and exotic color schemes for roofs.
Dark roofs tend to push roof lines down just like black shirts make short people look shorter. (I just made that up but dark roofs tend to make roofs look more shallow.) Conversely, lighter colors tend to make roofs look higher.
If you have a flat roof it doesn't matter what color it is unless you have a second story to look out of or a roof patio. White high emissivity roofs are the best herein the hell hole of the universe, and I'm referring to the heat.
Compliment your color of brick and paint or siding with colors like brown with tan or red with yellow. Personally I think brown paint is depressing.
In the countryside people can have brilliant colors because the homes are far apart but if you live fifteen feet from your neighbor, your red and green roofs might clash.
Loud siding like solid red or green, obviously chosen by the previous owner, can be toned down by adding a frosted red or green roof. You have to decide which to put on which and if you don't feel comfortable, ask the lady in your life. If you have no master, then find a temporary one to make the choice for you.
If you have a tile or standing seam roof you can go hog wild on color and people will forgive you. But not my dad. When he saw my high profile red steel tile and cream colored siding he said"you look like a Mexican." I told him I didn't but his grandchildren did and he laughed and never mentioned it again. When the deceased old hag down the street saw my icicle Christmas lights, she said my house looked like a taco stand. I went on a diet immediately. But not before giving her the evil eye.
Also available are Energy Star roofs in several colors. As Henry Ford said: you can get it in any color you want as long as it's white, er, black. He was not referring to roof color though.
Most manufacturers have a virtual remodeler that allows you select a roof after imputing a similar style home from dozens of examples, the brick color, and paint color. GAF even allows you to download a picture of a home. We used to just take a Polaroid of a home, cut out the roof, and lay the picture over the color swatches.
The color of roof is much easier to select than the style. That requires a little architectural savvy.
As a fellow student in college so profoundly said: taste is a matter of taste.
The same principles that robing yourself well, as opposed to disrobing, apply to selecting a roof color. If you read robbing, rather than robing, then you were thinking of your last roofer.For example, if you have a white brick, don't use whiteroofing. If your brick is plaid, or as we say, variegated, try to stick with a less mottled roof pattern. Solid bricks colors lend themselves to wild and exotic color schemes for roofs.
Dark roofs tend to push roof lines down just like black shirts make short people look shorter. (I just made that up but dark roofs tend to make roofs look more shallow.) Conversely, lighter colors tend to make roofs look higher.
If you have a flat roof it doesn't matter what color it is unless you have a second story to look out of or a roof patio. White high emissivity roofs are the best herein the hell hole of the universe, and I'm referring to the heat.
Compliment your color of brick and paint or siding with colors like brown with tan or red with yellow. Personally I think brown paint is depressing.
In the countryside people can have brilliant colors because the homes are far apart but if you live fifteen feet from your neighbor, your red and green roofs might clash.
Loud siding like solid red or green, obviously chosen by the previous owner, can be toned down by adding a frosted red or green roof. You have to decide which to put on which and if you don't feel comfortable, ask the lady in your life. If you have no master, then find a temporary one to make the choice for you.
If you have a tile or standing seam roof you can go hog wild on color and people will forgive you. But not my dad. When he saw my high profile red steel tile and cream colored siding he said"you look like a Mexican." I told him I didn't but his grandchildren did and he laughed and never mentioned it again. When the deceased old hag down the street saw my icicle Christmas lights, she said my house looked like a taco stand. I went on a diet immediately. But not before giving her the evil eye.
Also available are Energy Star roofs in several colors. As Henry Ford said: you can get it in any color you want as long as it's white, er, black. He was not referring to roof color though.
Most manufacturers have a virtual remodeler that allows you select a roof after imputing a similar style home from dozens of examples, the brick color, and paint color. GAF even allows you to download a picture of a home. We used to just take a Polaroid of a home, cut out the roof, and lay the picture over the color swatches.
The color of roof is much easier to select than the style. That requires a little architectural savvy.
As a fellow student in college so profoundly said: taste is a matter of taste.
Jon Alan Wright
Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows
1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310
Irving, TX 75061
972.251.1818 Office
214.718.3748 Cell
972.554.8090 Fax
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