I am ready to roof and side the exterior of my own, new house. But I don't know what colors to use or how to breakup the appearance of the large walls. I am using an exposed fastener sheet metal roof, adding a low profile raised portion in the middle of the house to provide ventilation. I am leaning towards galvanized finish. I am using a synthetic stucco wall finish, sand texture, colors I don't know. Fascia, soffit and gutter I don't know if I should match the roof or siding or some other color.

Brad,
Pink siding and purple trim might look good together.

Seriously, if you use bare galvnized roofing, I would not use the same for soffit, fascia, etc.
However, should you decide to use a colored metal roofing, then you could continue the same color for the trim, and it would work.
Also, be careful of the siding colors with the bare galvanized metal. White is ok, deeper defined colors are ok, pastels may not be ok.

Greetings,

Plain galvanized metal is not practcal of energy saving. Galvanized roofs aborbs aliot of energy and reradiate it to the roof structure. Galvalum emit less heat and last alot longer.

Would strongly suggest that you install a perforated foil insulation under the roofing and on the side walls. Could reduce your energy costs up to 50% plus the home would be alot cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

CK: fifoil.com

I would agree with the use of Galvalum over plain galvanized. A little more expensive, but much better product in terms of resistance to weathering, and durability. It also does a much better job of reducing heat buildup.

I am not familar with this perforated foil insulation, but I have a hard time with the claim of 50% increase in energy savings over other insulations. Way too good to be true.

I had noticed galvanized does not have the Energy Star rating. Will it make much difference with a vented attic and osb sheathing.
The walls are ICF.

Greetings,

QUOTE:I am not familar with this perforated foil insulation, but I have a hard time with the claim of 50% increase in energy savings over other insulations. Way too good to be true.

How can you say too good to be true if you are unfamiliar with RB. RB reflect about 97% of the heat energy, all other insulation materials absorb 80 -90 + and re radiate at the same.

I've been selling and installing RB for over 30 yrs and I usually state a reduction of 50% AC run time, although it can be better than that. Generally speaking a properly RB insulated 2x4 construction, ranch style house with unshaded, dark roof and shaded windows , on a 95 deg day, NO AC, will not go over 80-81 degs, interior. Is that good enough?

It's these, too good to be true comments that impede progress. Better to ask HOW does it work.

QUOTE> I had noticed galvanized does not have the Energy Star rating. Will it make much difference with a vented attic and osb sheathing.

Not necessarily. The galvanize has a very high rate of energy emittance and the bulk insulation will absorb about 90% of that energy. OSB is not much better than air. Install the RB over the purlins and then your OSB and roofing. You can also get foil laminated osb for the roof.

Be sure to have an adequate ridge and soffit vents. CK: cor-a-vent.com

Quite being cheap and use the galalum otherwise you'll be cussing yourself later on in time.

How much of a difference does location make with galvanized vs Galvalume and radiant barrier insulation? I am in MN.

I am not quite cheap, but I will quit being cheap when I have more money. Isn't galvanized brighter and more variegated in appearance?

Before anyone gets too excited over the amazing claims made by radiant barrier proponents, they should read this...
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/radiant-barriers-solution-search-problem

Google's sketchup (free) 3D modeling software has a color wheel that gives you any possible color scheme with a few mouse clicks. There is a learning curve, though. Most of the paint companies have similar online modeling software. To use Sherman Williams' Color Visualizer, you upload a photo and play with that image. BTW at least one SW store in our area, the help there is orders of magnitude smarter about paint and colors than than all the help combined at the nearest big box store.

Posted By ICFconstruction on 12 Sep 2011 01:19 PM
How much of a difference does location make with galvanized vs Galvalume and radiant barrier insulation? I am in MN.

I am not quite cheap, but I will quit being cheap when I have more money. Isn't galvanized brighter and more variegated in appearance?

In California under CA Title 24 rules they specify a minimum solar reflectivity & infra-red emissivity, that can be used calculate a min ASTM E1980 solar reflective index (SRI) for roofing materials depending on local climate zone and roof pitch. The most stringent is for low slope (2:12 or lower) roofs, which requires a min initial reflectivity of 0.7, and emissivity of 0.75 (which ends up being an SRI of 82).  For steep roofs (>2:12) made of lower-mass materails they use minimum 3 year aged numbers for reflectivity & emissivity of 0.2 and 0.75 respectively resulting in a relatively low SRI of 11.  Cement, slate, or tile roofs of a specified minimum mass get a break even from that, needing only an aged reflectivity of  0.15, emissivity 0.75 which is calculates to an SRI of 4 (!).

Where the builder/owner wants to use a material with an SRI lower than the min-spec, one of their options is to install interior radiant barrier.  No matter where you are, an exterior finish with a greater than 40 will meet or beat the thermal performance of rafter-mounted radiant barrier under a high-absorption high-pitch vented roof, and anything over 30 is actually pretty good.

The initial SRIs of various Galvalume colors are listed on the last page in this document.

Under CA Title 24 they have other options for steep roofs too :

• Use of R-0.85 insulation or a ¾” air space added to the roof deck over the attic space, or,
• Insulating and sealing existing air conditioning ducts in the attic space in accordance with Section 151(f)10, or,
• Buildings with no air conditioning ducts in the attic (do not require cool roofs), or
• In zones 10, 12, or 13, providing ventilation of at least 1 sq.ft of free ventilation per 150 sq.ft. of attic floor space and where
at least 30% of the ventilation is within 2 feet of the ridge, or,
• Having a minimum of R-30 ceiling insulation, or,
• Installing a radiant barrier that meets the requirements of Section 151(f)2, or,
• In zones 10, 11, 13, or 14, having a minimum R-3 deck insulation above a vented attic

Given that a code-min home in MN has more than R30 in the attic (IIRC R49 is code min in most of the state), and most don't have attic mounted ducts outside the insulation, the thermal benefits of Galvalume or r.b. will likely be "in the noise",  but if it isn't costing extra to go for a higher SRI, it's a "why not" situation. 

In most cases a code-min home in Minneapolis would save less than $5/year on utilities with rafter mounted r.b.(!). See the table on p.5- particularly the "no ducts" row at the bottom, as well as the no-ducts table on p.6:

  http://www.ornl.gov/sci/ees/etsd/bt...et2010.pdf

That's about the return you'd get on a cool roof material with an SRI north of 30 too, so don't go TOO hog-wild on it, eh?  If you like two colors equally and one has a higher SRI you might let that tip the balance, but don't lose any sleep over taking the darker colors with sub-30 SRIs if you like 'em better

Put up some pics of your house. Maybe someone will sketchup diff finish combos for ya.

Thanks for the input everyone. I will have sliding door over the large openings in front, so open or closed they will provide contrast if I finish those differently. They are a MgO board SIP panel. The other sides especially the north have little to break things up.

Here is the south, with all the doors, and the east with some windows and a patio door.

And the west side that has back-fill above the floor height and the north with a big wall, 88.5' with only one door and two windows on a 24'x18' wall.

Brad,

What are your design tastes? Do you want a traditional look or modern look? Do you want to match a local/regional style like southwest or mediterranean? Simple things you can do are profile the window and door openings, put a band right at the soffit like a crown molding, put a band at the chair rail wainscoting level, quoining at the corners, etc.... For color schemes you can go to the paint section of a home improvement store and look at the design brochures/leaflets that the paint manufacturers put out to help home owners or look online.

I think prairie style could work for this house. A continuous prominant band above the overhead doors and below the small clerestory windows would look good. With a heavier textured finish below the band and a smoother textured finish above? The overall porportions of your building seem quite nice.

Guessed at your dimensions, but here's 'stick-on' Frank Lloyd Wright Prarie-Style...

Nice Simon! thank you, I do like the prairie style. I just might do a variation of that. Any ideas on the big wall in back? do the bands go all the way around?

Thanks Brad. Well, the back wall will continue the theme. If you want to, send me a private message and I'll propose something.