We are (finally! - Covid delays) starting to get to the point of ordering metal siding and roofing for the run in we’re building, and we’re supposed to be getting colour swatches in the near future to choose from. Our current colour scheme on the barn is white cement lower, currently old plywood upper but we’d like to replace it with new and paint it black, and the roof is just galvanized, but again we’re looking to repair & paint, and/or down the road replace it. What colours would you pick for siding and roof of the run in, and roof of the barn? Considering both aesthetics and functionality (and cost, if there ends up being a difference). Thanks!
would help to have some idea as to where you are…for us Black would be the last color of choice since we have to combat solar heat gains.
2 Likes
Great point! I am in southern Ontario. Hot, humid summers (although we are pretty windy where we are, so the humidity is not as bad as some places) but we can get quite bitterly cold in the winter. There is a natural windbreak of trees about 20m behind the run in, which is built into the fenceline.
All our barns are red walls with white roof/ doors. Black would be the last thing I would want.
2 Likes
Practically all metal roof barns here are silver galvalume, as it seems to last forever.
Even the roof in my house is that.
Our metal sides are some white, some tan, some white by the barns painted tan.
Previously, decades ago, most metal barns were silver.
You can go by the albedo of different colors, scroll down to Energy Efficiency, right after Galvalume:
Have you driven around looking at barn colors, see what appeals to you?
When I built my barn, I chose colors that complimented the house: tan brick with red shingle roof.
Barn is a metal pole bldg: tan walls with deep reddish burgundy roof, sliders & crossbucks on Dutch doors.
When I had to put a new roof on the house, I picked shingles closer to the barn roof color.
Barn:
House brick:
I love the look of black and white, but due to heat reserve black as an accent color. I live in FL though so it’s legit killer hot in summer.
Maybe you could paint the block black and use white metal siding? Might look like wainscoting!
Everything on my farm is tan board and bat siding, white trim and black accents. Came that way and love it dearly!
I’ve seen green barns that were very pretty.
For such a northern location, I would go with a white roof (will keep building cooler when summer sun is high overhead) and dark sidewalls (will absorb/hold the sun’s warmth when it’s low on the horizon in the winter). I personally LOVE the look of a black barn with white trim.
I just put down the deposit for our new tractor barn and used this online tool to design it. It was so much easier to pick out colors when you could see the building as a 3-D model, rather than just little square swatches.
So maybe you can use this tool to create a model of your current barn, and decide on the future wall, roof, trim colors. On the “accessories” tab, you can add wainscoting, so you could even replicate the half cement, half wood walls.
Once you decide on the the main barn future colors, I’d make the lean-to match the dominant wall color of the main barn. So if you go with white cement with black plywood upper walls, I’d make the walls of the lean-to black. And use same roof color for both.
we used tan as the primary for fencing, base barn color…with a forest green trim
OP, there are color selection programs where you can use a photo of the building then color difference colors to provide a visualization
I “think” since you are up north I would consider Dark Green as the primary siding color with a trim of Tan. (I always like the Jaguar XKE that was British Racing Green with Tan leather interior…one of the most striking cars ever produced)
Roof would white or tan, really would depend on just what amount of the roof was actually visible
I forgot I had posted about this! So we’re still in the building process due to how slow everything is. We had decided on black walls and white roof (I see the combo a lot in this area and love it! Plus our fence is black so it will coordinate nicely), but the price of the silver galvanized was so much cheaper that we’re doing to do that for the roof instead! Still planning on doing the black walls, but needed to check something with the company… but actually, you guys would likely know this - is the metal coloured on both sides, or just one? If it’s only one, we’ll just do galvanized for the whole thing since it’s so much cheaper! Literally about 1/3 of the price. Thanks for the photos and links everyone, @anon81364900 that link is so fun to play around with!
1 Like
Any corrugated metal siding I have purchased has been colored on one side only. Check with the company to see if it getting it colored on both sides is an option if that is what you want.
1 Like
Thanks, I was kind of thinking that was the case. Hmmm… decisions, decisions…
We repainted the galvanized roof with a galvanized paint. Have to say the stirring with drill mixer was long to get the zinc particles into the base liquid. Roof looks great after 2 winters. Paint covered the rust, dripped enough to fill around old nails, so no inside drips from rain. Steep roof pitch lets the snow slide off with no effect on the paint.
My main concern would be covering the lower edge of metal siding if horses can touch the barn. I know of a couple grevious accidents where horses sliced body parts on the lowest edge of exposed metal siding. Same horses had been around that metal siding for years with no issues. When things went bad, it was nasty. One sliced off his most of his tongue grazing along the barn wall. Licking up, tongue on sharp metal edge got sliced off. Could not carry a bit after. The other horse kicked and cut up his hind leg badly. He was almost a year recovering, with almost daily treatment to keep it coming along right.
1 Like
Thanks so much for the tips on painting! Good to know it can weather a few winters. Also appreciate the safety warning. I’ve been pretty diligent in planning so far to avoid horse-accessible edges, but I’ll definitely do a thorough check again once it’s up, and cover as necessary.
