5 Most Popular Roof Shingle Colors For 2023 [Picture Guide] (2024)

FAQs

What color roof sells the best? ›

The Most Popular Roof Shingle Colors For 2022

light gray. light brown hues—sand, taupe, desert. dark brown hues—autumnal brown, tree bark, weathered wood.

Light shingles fair better in warmer weather, as light colors tend to deflect sunlight and keep your house cooler. Dark shingles are the opposite; they absorb heat, which makes them excellent for colder climates. They also tend to make snow melt much more quickly.

One of the most traditional shingle color options GAF offers, Charcoal is extremely popular as it goes with literally ANY home and never looks out of place.

In the debate over dark vs light-colored roof shingles, lighter ones win hands down when it comes to deflecting heat. In warm climates, heat can build up in the attic, lowering the energy efficiency of a home.

Light colors such as white, ivory, pale gray, and sage green reflect higher amounts of light than dark colors, tricking the eye into perceiving the home as larger than it is.

The big benefit to using light shingles is energy efficiency. Lighter materials don't absorb sunlight as easily as dark shingles. Instead, they reflect that light back into the sky. This helps the shingles last longer and helps keep houses cool during hot summer weather.

Experts recommend checking out homes in your neighborhood with the same roofing shingle color installed. If you can find a home with a similar roofline and pitch, you'll get an accurate sense of how the shingle color will look in natural lighting.

White is the best color for energy efficiency because of the albedo effect. With a white roof, or a roof with a color that has similarly lighter hues, the sun's rays are reflected instead of absorbed.

Relatively lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to install, asphalt shingles are the best choice for most houses. They come in sheets that are layered on a roof to give the illusion of more expensive single shingles, such as cedar and slate, that are installed one shingle at a time.

White or light-colored roofs reflect heat rays from the sun, keeping the attic and rooms below it cool during warm weather. As a result, the building's cooling load decreases, helping home and business owners stay comfortable and save money on their energy bills.

What color shingles reflect the most heat? ›

In general, light colors reflect the sun's rays, while dark colors absorb the heat. Therefore, lighter color roofs will deflect more heat away from the home and help to keep the interior cooler. The converse is also true – the darker the roof, the higher the temperatures are likely to be in your roof or upper floors.

Dark-colored roofs absorb heat, so if possible, it's a good idea to choose a lighter color shingle, especially in Florida. A light color, like white, will create a cooling effect on your home, reducing your electricity bills by a decent amount. As a Florida resident, energy efficiency should be important to you.

The main drawback of white shingles is that they won't be able to absorb heat as well as black shingles would during the colder seasons of the year. As you can imagine, absorbing heat during the winter could help you reduce the amount of heat your heating system needs to crank out to keep your home warm.

Lighter Colors

Darker colors are more prone to absorbing heat from UV radiation, while light-colored roofs reflect sunlight away. Painting your roof a lighter color may reduce the heat island effect and help you save on your energy bills.

Choosing the right roof color can significantly influence your home's resale value because it can account for up to 40% of your home's exterior appearance. It's crucial to pick a roof color that goes well with the rest of your home's exterior and does not clash with your neighbors or surroundings.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy calculate that metallic roofs as either shingles or panels can lower your air conditioning costs by up to 25%. While the exact numbers are tough to run, in general, lighter-colored metal roofs are more energy-efficient than darker-colored metal roofs.

That is the true disadvantage of darker coloured shingles, because they will absorb more solar energy and ultraviolet rays than light ones, increasing the wear.

White houses with black roofs will truly never go out of style. One of the best parts about choosing a black roof is that you are rarely limited by material selection. Black asphalt shingles and black metal roofs are easy to come by. White siding is a popular choice because it makes houses look bigger on the outside.

The year 2022 is all about leaning into earth tones and using nature as inspiration. You will see a lot of variations of green, olive, and forest. Blue and gray will continue to be a mainstay in exterior design in 2022, with more homeowners choosing to go dark and moody.

Pantone's 2022 Color of the Year is making history with its best reveal yet: an entirely new hue created, for the first time ever, to serve as Color of the Year. They call it Very Peri (17-3938).

What is the colors trend for 2022? ›

Pantone revealed in December that Very Peri, a blue-purple hue, is its color of 2022. The shade is described as a “warm and friendly blue hue with a carefree confidence and joyful attitude.” Very Peri is just one shade of blue Pantone predicts will be big in 2022.

What Color Metal Roof Fades the Least? Lighter colors – tans, whites, and grays – fade far less than darker, more saturated colors. You can also invest in a protective coating that buffers the roof from mildew, moisture, and sun to combat fading.

In general, lighter-colored roofs reflect away heat rays from the sun, but dark-colored roofs absorb much of that heat and transfer it into the rooms below. So, yes, black roofs do attract more heat. Or course, color isn't the only aspect of your roof that affects home temperature.

The shingles are manufactured in varying shapes and sizes to look more organic and to mimic more traditional roofing materials such as wood shake and slate. The greater thickness also means they last longer.

Overall, roof shingles in various shades of black, gray, brown, and red are the most popular nationwide. The likely reason that these colors are perennial favorites is that they echo colors of natural building materials used throughout history – slate, metal, wood, and clay.

Darker colors absorb more heat, and warmer roofs make it easy for snow and ice to slide right off. Lighter colors reflect sun rays, keeping roofs cooler and helping homeowners in warmer climates save a little on their energy bills.

Fiberglass shingles are a particularly good choice in high wind areas, as they are a strong product which is unlikely to come apart. Not only is it important to pick a good product like a quality fiberglass shingle, but you also need to be sure that those shingles are installed properly.

Roofing material that lasts the longest are concrete, clay or slate tiles. These materials significantly outperform other natural products like wood shakes or any manufactured roofing materials including asphalt shingles and metal roofing.

While a repair job can often be more convenient and somewhat more cost-efficient, placing new shingles over old ones is never a good idea. Whether repairing one section of roof, or a replacing a whole one, it's always best to pull up the old shingles before putting down the new ones.

What color roof should a grey house have? ›

Shingles For Gray or Blue Houses

Use shingles that are black, or gray. If your home is gray, make sure to go lighter or darker than your siding.

Dark colors absorb more radiated heat from the sunlight while lighter colors reflect it. That's why wearing a black shirt on a sunny day makes you feel so much hotter than when you're wearing a white shirt!

Black will absorb more light from the sun, which means absorbing more heat, while white reflects more light, meaning it absorbs less energy and heat from the sun.

The specific order from least to greatest amount of heat absorption is: clear, orange, yellow, red, green, purple, and blue.

Luxury or premium shingles are actually larger than the other asphalt shingles and are made to look like slate. While 3-tab shingles still make good looking roofs, dimensional and luxury shingles mimic other roof types to give you a distinct look.

Oleson found that even if every city building roof and stretch of urban pavement in the world were painted white, it would only delay global warming by 11 years. But its potential value in ameliorating the most severe consequences of excess heat in cities could be life-saving.

Reshingling the roof is the usual way to change its appearance, but a much more affordable method for updating a home's look is to simply paint the shingles. Purchasing the paint, renting a paint sprayer, and painting the roof yourself are significantly less expensive than the cost of reshingling the roof.

Asphalt shingles remain far and away the most popular choice because they're relatively inexpensive and easy to install. In CR's roofing tests, we've found that some shingles perform better overall than others that cost more.

Darker colors absorb more heat, and warmer roofs make it easy for snow and ice to slide right off. Lighter colors reflect sun rays, keeping roofs cooler and helping homeowners in warmer climates save a little on their energy bills.

Why do many people paint their roofs shiny silver than black? ›

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy calculate that metallic roofs as either shingles or panels can lower your air conditioning costs by up to 25%. While the exact numbers are tough to run, in general, lighter-colored metal roofs are more energy-efficient than darker-colored metal roofs.

But the most common type of roof you see on homes today is an asphalt roof. An asphalt roof is a roof system made primarily out of asphalt shingles and other asphalt roofing components. The reason for its popularity is simply because it's the most cost-effective type of roof for the average homeowner.