Why the color lists you find online are wrong for you
CertainTeed does not ship every color everywhere. Distribution is regional, and our supplier stocks what sells in the Northwest. So the list below is what a homeowner in Hayden, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum or Spokane can actually buy, which is shorter than the one on the national sites.
Terra Cotta is the clearest example. It is on every national list and on CertainTeed's own site, and I cannot get it without freighting it in. The desert tones sell in Arizona, so that is where they sit.
Special ordering is possible. I have priced it out, and by the time freight lands on the estimate the conversation is over.
What we install, and what we don't
Six lines. Patriot XL, Landmark, Landmark PRO, Landmark ClimateFlex, Landmark TL, and Presidential Shake, which comes in two versions. Full specs are on our CertainTeed asphalt shingle page.
We do not carry Grand Manor, Carriage House or Highland Slate. Good products, but distributors here do not stock them, because they do not sell in the Pacific Northwest.
Patriot XL
This is the value shingle. It reads flatter than the rest of the lineup.
The thing that actually matters here is the warranty. Patriot XL is the one line where the best we can put behind it is 15 years. Everything else in this article we back with a 50 year non-prorated warranty. That gap matters more than the color you pick.
So it fits a rental, a flip, or new construction, where the roof changes hands long before the coverage runs out. It is the wrong shingle if you are the one staying. Fifteen years arrives sooner than people expect.
Four colors, and that is the entire palette.
Jet Black
Smoked Grey
Trufflewood
Hazelnut
Pick this one if: budget is your number one concern. It fits a rental, a flip, or new construction, where the roof changes hands well before the 15 year coverage runs out.
If you want an upgrade to a 50 year warranty, Landmark would be the better choice for you.
Landmark
The workhorse. Two layer laminated, and it goes on more of our roofs than anything else. Walk your street and half the houses are probably wearing it.
This is where most people who say "I just want a normal roof that looks good" land. StreakFighter algae coverage runs 25 years. The wind warranty is 130 mph, as long as it goes on with CertainTeed starter and hip and ridge, which is how we install it. That rating belongs to the system, not the shingle.
The honest drawback is the palette. Ten colors covers most people, but if you want a particular blend, or the depth of a wider granule mix, this is where you feel the limit. That is the usual reason people step up to PRO, which is next.
Silver Birch
Granite Gray
Georgetown Gray
Weathered Wood
Moire Black
Cinder Black
Black Walnut
Heather Blend
Burnt Sienna
Resawn Shake
Pick this one if: you want a normal roof that looks good and holds up, and you would rather not pay for depth you will not notice from the street.
Landmark PRO
The same shingle with more weight and Max Def color, a wider blend of granules, so the roof reads with depth instead of one flat tone.
The honest version. On blacks and dark grays that upgrade is barely visible from the street. On the browns and blends it is obvious. Espresso, Black Walnut and Heather Blend come alive in a way the standard palette does not.
So on a dark roof you are buying weight and five more years of algae coverage, 30 years instead of 25.
Silver Birch
Cinder Black
Max Def Moire Black
Max Def Granite Gray
Max Def Georgetown Gray
Max Def Weathered Wood
Max Def Black Walnut
Max Def Heather Blend
Max Def Espresso
Pick this one if: you are leaning toward a brown or a blend. That is where the wider granule mix actually shows itself, and the algae coverage runs five years longer than Landmark.
Landmark ClimateFlex
The one most homeowners here have never heard of and probably should.
ClimateFlex is a rubberized SBS shingle. If it does not get a proper seal at first and the wind catches it and flips it up, it will not crease and crack the way a normal shingle does. It lays back down. That is the differentiator. Brittle shingles crack, which is why you see split shingles here after a hard winter. It also carries a Class 4 impact rating, the highest there is.
With our freeze thaw swings, above freezing by afternoon and below at night for weeks, that matters more here than somewhere mild.
Worth one phone call: ask your carrier whether a Class 4 impact rated roof earns a discount on your premium. Some offer one, and most homeowners never think to ask. If you are already in a storm claim, our guide to roof insurance claims covers the order to do things in.
The downsides are real. Six colors, and a step up in cost from PRO.
Burnt Sienna
Heather Blend
Moire Black
Resawn Shake
Colonial Slate
Weathered Wood
Pick this one if: cold and hail are what worry you. Nothing else in the lineup handles a hard freeze the same way, and it carries the highest impact rating there is.
Landmark TL
Triple laminate. Three layers instead of two, throwing a heavier shadow line so it reads like hand split shake from the ground.
It is also a genuinely heavy shingle. CertainTeed's data sheet puts Landmark TL at about 305 pounds per square, well above a standard architectural shingle, and you feel every bit of it carrying a bundle up a ladder. After the windstorms we have had around North Idaho, that weight is why I bring TL up. If what worries you is shingles lifting in a hard blow, this is the one I would put on your house.
It earns its money on a steep pitch and on exteriors already carrying timber or stone.
Four colors, normal for the luxury lines. The palettes get shorter the higher you go.
Country Gray
Shenandoah
Moire Black
Max Def Black Walnut
Pick this one if: wind is your worry, or you have a lot of roof in view. It is the heaviest shingle we install short of Presidential.
Presidential Shake and Presidential Shake TL
We sell both, and they are not the same shingle. They share five colors, which is where the confusion starts.
Presidential Shake is two layer. Presidential Shake TL is three layer and heavier, the closest asphalt gets to real cedar.
If that depth matters most, buy the TL. Otherwise the two layer Shake does the job.
People who want the cedar shake look without owning cedar end up here. Real cedar through our freeze thaw cycles is a maintenance commitment. Asphalt that looks like cedar is not.
This is the top of the lineup and a significant step up. If you want to see where a replacement lands and what moves the price, what a replacement costs and what moves that price will get you closer.
Country Gray
Shadow Gray
Charcoal Black
Aged Bark
Autumn Blend
Pick this one if: you want a cedar shake roof without owning cedar. This is as close as asphalt gets to the real thing.
Three roofs we finished, and what the color is doing on each
Moire Black on ClimateFlex, Hayden
Moire Black is safe without being boring. It is a black with movement in it, so on a complicated roofline it does not read as one dark shape.
This house is sage green siding with cedar trim and a stone entry, not an obvious pairing, and it works. It hides the ponderosa needle staining everybody here gets, and it does not date itself.
Moire Black is also in Landmark, PRO, ClimateFlex and TL, four of the six lines we install. If you love the color but have not settled on a line, it locks you into nothing.
Shenandoah on Landmark TL
Shenandoah is a brown blend with real variation. On a triple laminate, where the shadow lines are already deep, it looks textured even in flat light.
It lands on warm exteriors. Timber, tan or clay siding, river rock. Against a cool grey house it fights.
Weathered Wood on Landmark
Weathered Wood is a grey brown, the answer when the siding and trim and stone are not agreeing with each other. It refuses to commit to warm or cool, which is the whole job.
The three colors that leave the supply house most on our jobs are Moire Black, Max Def Espresso and Georgetown Gray. Espresso only exists in Landmark PRO, so falling for it makes the line decision for you. Georgetown Gray is in both Landmark and PRO, the easiest color to compare side by side.
Does a darker roof help with snow, heat or fire?
Every winter somebody asks whether a darker roof helps with ice dams. Slightly, and nowhere near enough to pick your color around.
Heat escapes the living space into the attic and melts the underside of the snowpack. That water runs down, hits the cold eave, and refreezes, and the ridge backs water up under the shingles.
That is an insulation and ventilation problem, not a color problem. The blackest shingle CertainTeed makes, on a badly ventilated attic, still builds ice over the gutter every February. Fix the attic, then pick any color. We wrote up how ice dams actually form if you want more.
Summer runs the same way in reverse, and in a vented attic the difference at the ceiling has never changed anybody's mind here.
Fire rating has nothing to do with color. Every line here is Class A, the highest there is.
How to pick a color without regretting it
The biggest mistake is choosing from a two inch sample on the kitchen counter.
Take it outside and hold it against the siding, trim, and any stone or brick in daylight. Then look again near sunset, because blends shift more than solids do.
Better than that, drive around and look at roofs. Photograph one you like and send it to us. We can usually tell you what it is.
CertainTeed does have an online visualizer. It is fine for narrowing five options to two, and not accurate enough for the final call.
Who this list is not for
If your heart is set on something we do not stock, special order is possible. You pay freight and you wait. Better to hear it now than see it on the estimate.
If you are in an HOA around Coeur d'Alene or Post Falls, read the covenants first. Some approved lists are shorter than this one.
And if the shingle line is not picked yet, color is the wrong place to start. Pick on how long you are staying, what the roof takes, and what you will spend. Our materials comparison lays out those tradeoffs. Backwards is how somebody overbuys for a house they are selling.
Frequently asked questions
What colors do CertainTeed shingles come in?
It depends where you live. In North Idaho and Eastern Washington our six lines carry 38 options, all listed above.
Why can't I get Terra Cotta shingles in North Idaho?
It is stocked where it sells, the Southwest. Special order means paying freight and waiting.
Does shingle color affect the fire rating?
No. Every line here is Class A, the highest there is.
Should I pick the color or the shingle line first?
The line, always. Choose on how long you are staying, what the roof takes, and your budget.
The bottom line
This list is shorter than the national ones, and that is the point. Every color here is one we can put on your roof in Hayden, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum or Spokane without freighting it in.
We keep full size sample boards for every line above and will bring them to the house. No charge, nothing attached. We hold them against your siding in your light, so nobody guesses off a photo.