Sure, a house consists of four walls, a roof, flooring, wood, concrete, windows, doors, and a host of other materials and components – but a lot more than mere functionality is required to make a house a home.
Your roofing has a huge impact on your property’s overall aesthetics, sometimes referred to as “curb appeal.” And that’s not unimportant. After all, homeowners care a great deal about what their home looks like both on the inside and on the outside.
Here are some of the most important ways in which roofing relates to curb appeal and how you can make your roof and your building their very best.
How Your Roof & Your Roofing Impact Curb Appeal
There are many reasons why your roof is so important to the looks of your home. The most obvious reason is that roofing typically covers half or more of your home’s exterior surface area. Sheer size makes roofing a big aesthetic factor!
Next, consider the way your roofing’s color impacts the looks of your home. Getting the right color, tone, and shade to complement or contrast with the color of the siding and trim obviously does wonders for the way your building appears from a little bit back. (And the shape, size, style, and arrangement of shingles or other roofing material also need to pair well with the rest of the building.)
The pitch and shape of the roof itself have a major effect on the style of a building. The roofing attached to it further enhances the effect, if it is well chosen and correctly installed. This, of course, highlights the fact that experienced roofing contractors can improve the beauty of your home through new roofing significantly more effectively than their less experienced competitors.
Finally, consider that curb appeal created by great roofing is about more than just looks. It can affect your home’s selling value too, and a well-designed roofing job will also help a listed property sell faster and higher than a home without a stunning roof on top.
Your Roofing Has Two Distinct Lifespans
No one wants to have to undergo roof replacement before “it’s time,” but the fact is, there are instances where you would choose to replace old roofing before it has reached the end of its manufacturer’s warranty or its expected functional lifespan.
In point of fact, all roofing has at least two distinct lifespans: a functional lifespan and an aesthetic (curb appeal) lifespan.
Roofing shingles may deteriorate aesthetically, fade, chip a bit, or go “way out of style” years before they stop preventing water from entering your building’s interior. No one wants to tear off a relatively new roof, of course, but when roofing is half or more past its functional lifespan, doesn’t look very good, and you have other additional motives for replacing it – you might move a little bit early on it.
For example, let’s say you are in the midst of a major renovation project and you want it all to match well. Or maybe you are planning on selling your home soon. Or perhaps a major part of your roofing suffered from severe storm damage and it makes more sense to just replace the whole thing even if the roofing is not at the end of its functionality yet.
How Different Roofing Materials Impact Curb Appeal
Aside from newer roofing versus older, there are also the curb appeal differences among different roofing material types to take into account.
The most popular type of roofing today is, by far, three-tab asphalt shingle roofing. But there are different grades of this, and the better ones not only function better – they look better too. And you may also want to go with asphalt dimensional shingles, which are designed to give you excellent curb appeal due to the more “3D” contours of the shingles and more varied layout of the tabs. (Note that dimensional shingles are also sometimes referred to as architectural or laminated shingles.)
Another very popular roofing type is metal. This may mean metallic shingles or long sheets of metal. Many times, the product is designed to imitate the look of other material-types, like clay tiles (for example.) But a streamlined look that doesn’t pretend to be anything else can also be appealing. It depends on how it fits in with the rest of the house and on the homeowner’s personal taste.
Wood shakes/shingles are classic. Cedar or redwood are the usual woods used, and they certainly give you a rustic, warm, and nostalgic look that many people just love. While you want to consider other factors like cost, lifespan, weather resistance, and maintenance needs, wood can certainly bring a curb appeal all its own.
Clay tiling is a popular choice in parts of Florida and the Southwestern United States. It hails back to Spanish colonial days historically, and where did the Spanish get this basic concept – the Romans! Now THAT is a very classic roofing style!
Now, there are other roofing types too that offer their own unique styles, such as slate shingles, rubber slate, concrete, stone-coated steel, tar and gravel, rolled roofing, green roofing (covered in grass or other plant life), and most recently, solar tiles.
Each homeowner will have to decide for him or herself what to think of these options aesthetically, but they all do make a unique statement. And you should take that into full account when selecting a material that will be on your roof for decades to come.
There is no doubt that choosing the right roofing is a big decision for every homeowner. And part of that decision centers on the way the roof is going to look. Of course, you also want to focus on durability, cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency, and other key factors.
To learn more about how to choose the most appropriate roofing material for your home or business property, contact the experienced local contractors at Sheegog Contracting in Central Florida today for a free consultation!
