What is the visualizer?
The visualizer is a free online tool that lets you upload a photo of your home and see what it would look like with a new roof, new siding, or both. You can try different materials, colours, and combinations — asphalt shingles in twelve different colours, standing seam metal in blue or black, Decra stone-coated metal in a slate-look, vinyl siding in a dozen finishes, fibre cement in cooler tones — all overlaid on your actual house.
It's powered by Renoworks, the same exterior visualization technology used by manufacturers like Owens Corning and CertainTeed for their dealer networks. The product library is real: the colours and textures you'll see are pulled from actual product samples, not generic renderings. What you see is what we'd actually install.
How the visualizer works
-
Upload a photo
A clear, daylit photo of the front of your home, taken from across the street or your front yard, works best. Avoid heavy shadows or photos blocked by cars and trees.
-
Pick what you want to change
Roof, siding, trim, gutters, doors. You can change one element at a time or restyle the whole exterior in a single pass.
-
Try different products and colours
The product library covers the actual brands and finishes we install: Owens Corning shingles, United Steel metal panels, Decra stone-coated metal, CertainTeed siding and more.
-
Save what you like
Save your favourite combinations to compare side by side. When you're ready, request a free assessment and bring the visualization to the conversation.
What you can change
The visualizer covers the full home exterior. Change one thing or all of it.
Roofing material
Asphalt shingles, standing seam metal, exposed fastener metal, or Decra stone-coated metal.
Shingle colour
Owens Corning Duration and CertainTeed Landmark in their full colour library.
Metal panel finish
Standing seam in dozens of paint colours with Galvalume protection.
Siding
Vinyl, fibre cement, and engineered wood in a wide colour range.
Trim and accents
Window trim, fascia, soffit, and corner pieces. Coordinated or contrasting.
Gutters and doors
Try different gutter colours, garage door styles, and front door finishes.
Why use the visualizer before committing
A new roof or new siding is one of the largest exterior decisions you'll make for your home. The colour and material you choose will be on your house for fifteen to fifty years, depending on the system. It will affect resale value, kerb appeal, and how you feel pulling into your driveway every day for the next two decades.
Most homeowners choose roofing colours from a small swatch held against the side of the house. That swatch is two inches across. Your finished roof will be hundreds of square feet, viewed from the street, with sunlight bouncing off it differently every hour of the day. The leap from "this swatch looks nice" to "the whole roof in this colour" is bigger than most people expect.
The visualizer closes that gap. You see the colour on your actual house, in proportion, with your actual surroundings. The same goes for siding: a vinyl panel sample looks completely different to vinyl panels covering a 2,000 square foot home.
Ready to try it? The visualizer is free, takes a few minutes, and doesn't require an email signup or any personal details.
Open the Visualizer →How accurate is the visualization?
Very accurate for colour and material match. The product library is sourced directly from manufacturers. When you select Owens Corning Duration in Onyx Black, you're seeing the actual Onyx Black shingle texture and colour rendered onto your house.
Where it's less accurate: the lighting on your photo is a single moment in time. Your house in golden hour looks different from your house at midday. The visualizer shows you the colour you've selected as it would appear in the lighting of your uploaded photo. If you want to see how a colour reads in different conditions, upload a few different photos.
The visualizer is also not a perfect substitute for a physical sample. For metal roofing especially, the way light bounces off a real installed standing seam panel has a quality that screen rendering can only approximate. We can bring physical samples when we come out for the assessment.
What homeowners typically discover
Three things come up again and again when people use the visualizer:
- Colours look very different at house scale. A swatch that seems "almost grey" might read as "very dark" once it's covering 1,800 square feet of roof.
- Combinations matter more than individual choices. A roof colour that looks great on its own might clash with the existing siding. The visualizer lets you check the combination, not just the parts.
- Most people change their mind at least once. The first colour you pick is rarely the one you commit to. Trying three or four side by side is normal and useful.
When you're done in the visualizer
Save the combination you like. Then request a free assessment. We'll come out, take a proper look at your home, confirm what's possible (some materials don't suit some pitches; some colours need verification against your actual lighting), and send you a written, fixed-price estimate.
You don't have to use Better Way Roofing after using the visualizer. The tool is free regardless. If you want to take your saved design to another contractor, that's fine. We hope you'll come back to us, but the visualizer is on us either way.