roof color: show me yours! archived

amandacat

Jul 11, 2011 at 10:05am

We’re getting a new roof this week (hooray!), and trying to decide which color shingles we want. Looks like we’ve narrowed it down to “charcoal” or “pewter” GAF Timberline/dimensional shingles, but it’s hard to tell from the tiny sample what they look like IRL. I realize this is kind of a longshot, but are there any kind MOLers out there who’ve had their roofs done recently in either of these colors who wouldn’t mind messaging me your address so I can swing by and take a look? I would be eternally grateful!

susan1014

Jul 11, 2011 at 10:14am Edited

My SO is still annoyed with me for going with dark gray shingles instead of a deeper black...but our job is older, and I don't know which specific product we used, so probably not useful to look at mine!

Oldstone

Jul 11, 2011 at 10:19am

My neighbor has the Charcoal Timberline roof. PL me for her address to do a drive-by. When I got a few estimates, I said I wanted a black roof and pointed across the street. They said that was the Charcoal color. I want darker.

ffof

Jul 11, 2011 at 11:18am

have your roof company give you addresses of roofs they've done anad what color are they, and drive around.

amandacat

Jul 11, 2011 at 11:29am

Charcoal looks like black to me, which is nice but I'm afraid might be too dark. But I'm also afraid pewter might be too light! For some complicated reason my husband doesn't think he can get a list from the roofer on time, sigh . . .

PeggyC

Jul 11, 2011 at 11:57am

What color is your house? That could make a big difference.

kthnry

Jul 11, 2011 at 12:05pm

I was going to replace my roof several years ago. My house also needed repainting, so I figured I should choose the house colors first, then choose the roof color to match. However, I got so paralyzed by all the color decisions that I still haven't done anything.

When I got my estimate from R&G Roofing, they gave me a list of every house in M/SO that they'd roofed (hundreds of houses) showing the color and the type of shingles. Very helpful. Post here if your roofer can't provide that info and I'll see if I can dig up the list. I think it's pretty close to the surface.

amandacat

Jul 11, 2011 at 12:31pm

We got an estimate from R&G too, I'll haveto check tonight & see if we got the same list you did; thanks for the tip!

We are repainting our house too! Haven't decided that part either, but I am thinking grey or blue or a sagey or moss green. That was going to be my next post on MOL!!!!!

PeggyC

Jul 11, 2011 at 1:09pm

If it were me making the decision, I think I'd go to Barnes & Noble or Home Depot and stand in front of the home improvement magazines and books for an hour looking at every house for roof and siding color ideas. But I think I would probably go with Oldstone's suggestion of going darker rather than lighter. The charcoal would provide a nice contrast with grey, blue or sage and make the house look more grounded.

nan

Jul 11, 2011 at 1:28pm Edited

I had the same problem with the charcoal being too dark and the pewter being too light, so I went with the weathered wood, which intends to be a warm, cedar shake reminiscence, but actually ends up a nice mid tone purplish gray. You know where I live so come on by to check it out.

soda

Jul 11, 2011 at 1:32pm

Whatever you do, stay away from brown. It severly limits the color combos you can reasonably use to paint your house.

-s.

steven_brier

Jul 11, 2011 at 2:27pm

Go with white
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/in-a-climate-quest-the-roof-as-white-knight/?ref=science

debby

Jul 11, 2011 at 2:37pm

A dark roof makes for an extra hot old house in the summer.

nan

Jul 11, 2011 at 2:38pm

Just when we finally got rid of all the white roofs from the 1970's they are making a comeback. White, the ugliest roof color, cause houses to lose definition unless painted white too. Even more than brown, white limits the painting colors severely. Still this should make you think twice about choosing a very dark color.

debby

Jul 11, 2011 at 2:42pm

I agree - a white flat roof, or white tile, is all together different from shingles on a clapboard house. If you have a mansard roof, however, I could see going with a very pale grey.

Juniemoon

Jul 11, 2011 at 4:22pm

We had our roof done at least 5 years ago, by Scott's roofing. We decided to go with a GREAT dark green, and were very happy with it. The roofer was thrilled to do a green roof in such a visible location, and gave us $$ off for letting him keep his sign up longer. We don't own the house anymore, but you can take a look at 191 Parker (corner of Parker & Boyden)

We had a black roof before, and got an attic fan put in around the same time that really kept the house cooler.

amandacat

Jul 11, 2011 at 5:14pm

Thanks all! We used the R&G list and drove around looking at roofs after dinner tonight, glad we did because we originally thought we wanted pewter but it turns out we prefer charcoal! Stay tuned for my soon to come thread, "What Color Should I Paint My House?"