Help!! We just had our whole roof replaced. It was a tear off job and we now have brand new 30 year warranty shingles. We HATE the color. We really screwed up big time in picking it. Does anyone know if you can PAINT the roof somehow?? Can you tar it black or something?? We want it black, which is what it was all along and it looked great all along, colorwise. We stupidly chose a medium to light gray with touches of red (which in actuality turns out to be more burgundy) and it looks AWFUL. I know it's trivial in light of the world's tragedies, (and recent hurricane victims with NO roofs....)but we are really unhappy with it and are looking for SOME way of fixing it, short of redoing the whole roof for thousands of dollars! Does anyone know if you can put more shingles on over architectural shingles? These have some 'texture' to them or something. Slapping black shingles on over these would reduce the cost somewhat rather than them tearing off all the new and starting over. We're so mad at ourselves for picking such a stupid color over the classic color we had. The roofer even said dark roofs are fine now, it's ventilation that matters and we were getting all new ventilation up there so color shouldn't have mattered. Help!!!!!!!

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 08:37 pm:

Sorry, can't help, but I can sympathize. We just got a new roof last fall, but color wasn't an issue, since we just went with basically the same color that was there to begin with.

Why not call *another* roofer and ask???

By Emily7 on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 10:08 pm:

I would call another roofer.

By Ginny~moderator on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 05:56 am:

You can probably have a roofer put on a second layer of shingles. But, my area and most areas only allow two layers of shingles and if you then need re-roofing you have to tear off both layers and start from scratch as you just did. This is because of the weight of the shingles and what the roofing framework can safely support. As for painting, talk to a roofer but I am not optimistic.

By Feona on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 06:47 am:

I would just learn to love the color. Live with it a while and maybe you will grow to like it. How does the neighbors feel. Grey is a great color!

We had black roof and it made the top floor like a stove.

Grey made the upstair cool in the summer. You will love that grey roof next hot summer.

By Unschoolmom on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 06:56 am:

If you tarred the roof it would look twice as bad. We tarred ours to get a few more years out of it and it's ugly. We just put on new shingles this summer finally.
If you wanted to change it you'd be looking at another big expense. I think Feona's got it right. Maybe there are little cosmetic things you could do (paint trim, plant flowers) that would make the colour fit your house a little more.

By Mommyathome on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 04:05 pm:

What if you painted the house to coordinate? Maybe even just the trim and the doors or something?
I think that reshingling would be the only option. I wouldn't tar it. That would be a mess.
Do you have pictures to post?