This project reminds me of two recurring themes that we encounter often in the metal roofing business - roof colors as they appear in the sample and on the roof, and what roofing material weighs.

Roof Color

The color of a roof can look very different depending on the angle of viewing. If I had a photo of the sample piece of this metal roof, many of you reading would observe that it seems different that the photo of the finished roof above. That’s because with metal roofing especially, the viewing angle has a tremendous effect on what the eye captures.

There are many, but the two biggest factors that influence the perceived color of a roof are the fact that it usually reflects the sky, and it is also always impacted by the angle of the sun. Note that all of these photos are of the same roof material photographed on the same day - once of the old material, and once with the new metal roof.

When choosing a color for a roof, remember than most of the time it will appear much lighter on the roof than the sample you viewed in your hand. Decades of specifying metal roofing has driven this point home loud and clear!

Roof Weight

Regarding concrete roofing products, there have been many, many attempts over the years to offset one of the biggest downsides to these types of roof materials - the very significant weight of the installed product. No one needs to be educated to understand that concrete is heavy, and so it surprises few that it’s often 7 to 10 times (or more!) the weight of a metal roof (usually 4 or 5 times the weight of asphalt shingles, even).

Given this fact, a lot of manufacturers have over the years attempted to make “lightweight” versions of these products, and this particular job was originally installed with an example. As you can see from the photos, many problems arose from this particular attempt and this residence had its lightweight concrete roof replaced after it had failed miserably. The failure caused a lot of leaking resulting in structural damage to the home below, and this customer wanted a product that would have a similar appearance but also offer more reliability. Our metal shake was the answer. 

See how metal roofing and concrete roof materials compare with our free guide, and contact us today for more information on this roofing material or any of our other products.