Lyons Roofing

Designer Roofs: How Your Roof Impacts Your Curb Appeal

As a homeowner, you more than likely care tremendously about how your home looks both inside and out. When it comes to your exterior, the roof on your home plays an extremely important role in how appealing your home looks. Your roof is your home’s single largest feature, composing as much as 50 to 60 percent of your home’s visible shell from the exterior. That makes your roof far more than just a necessity or a protection tool—it’s very much also a design feature that needs substantial consideration.

Your Roof Has Two Different Lifespans

Because your roof plays such an integral role in your home’s curb appeal, it actually has two different lifespans: a durability lifespan and an aesthetic lifespan. The durability lifespan is what you typically think of when a roofing material claims it can last up to a certain age; it’s the amount of time you can expect a material to last before the materials begin to break down and compromise the integrity of your roof.

However, this is usually far longer than your roof’s aesthetic lifespan, which is how long a roof’s beauty and appeal will last on your home. As roofs begin to age, they lose this appeal as colors fade, damage forms and becomes visible, and home design and décor preferences begin to change and sway. The last factor is perhaps the most volatile factor in your home’s aesthetic lifespan: what’s popular in home design today may not be the case in 20 years’ time, or 10 years, or even next year for that matter. Before you know it, a roof which may have looked beautiful at one point now suddenly looks like a relic of the past, and will make your home appear as though it’s extremely dated and old as well. And nobody wants to buy a home that looks like it belongs in a book about design trends of history.

Curb Appeal & Home Value

Your home’s outward appearance can be easily described by one term: curb appeal. Curb appeal is what makes your home attractive to look at, and likewise instills a sense of value. Homes that look beautiful and possess strong curb appeal are attractive to potential buyers. They also bring up the value of homes around purely because they make a neighborhood look so appealing. A home with high curb appeal is an extremely desirable one, while one with poor curb appeal is an eyesore and one which nobody really wants to visit or live near.

This is why realtors will so often tell potential sellers to do everything they can to clean up and improve their home’s exterior before listing it on the market—when a first impression is everything, you can’t afford to make a bad one. And a dated or unattractive roof can create a pretty bad first impression. A poor first impression is hard to overcome, and thus homes with poor curb appeal often have a hard time selling. If they do manage to attract any offers, they’re most likely far below the desired asking price, even if the roof itself is in good condition and free from any signs of damage.

Roofing Design Options

As roofing materials have evolved and advanced, more and more options for roofing materials have become available. Traditional materials have become more versatile and are now available in different colors and shades to match nearly any design style or aesthetic quality you’re looking for. And modern materials which an imitate classic styles or even come in some new, cutting-edge design ideas are also out there. If you’ve got an idea, it’s almost guaranteed you can find a roofing material which suits your needs.

However, it’s important to keep a few things in mind when selecting your roofing material. First: no design style is timeless, and this is particularly true for fringe or cutting-edge trends. If you go with a more extreme style choice today, it may become an eyesore which hurts your curb appeal in a few years’ time. If you try to sell your home with an aesthetically-displeasing roof, you may find it harder than you initially thought. Likewise, your neighbors may not appreciate your design tastes quite to the same level you do around that time when your poor curb appeal drags down the value of their home by proximity.

Instead, we always advise people to have a goal in mind, but consider going with a more traditional color and material style. These roofs generally look great with just about any other change you make to your home’s exterior, such as siding changes or trim color, and give you a much greater degree of flexibility. Likewise, your roof will remain solid and you won’t have to worry about needing to completely replace it to ensure your home sells in a timely manner.

Need help designing the perfect roof for your home? Work with the experts at Lyons Roofing and we’ll help you choose the right material and color for making your home beautiful! Give us a call at (520) 447-2522 for a consultation today.

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