Materials, Colors & Wood-Grain Finishes

The right color survives the desert.

A metal roof in Tucson sees roughly 3,800 hours of direct sun a year and surface temperatures in the 150-170°F range on a black-painted south slope in July. That’s the destructive end of what any architectural finish ever has to deal with: hotter than coastal salt, longer than northern UV, more thermally cyclical than just about anywhere in North America. So the color question is not “which one looks best on the swatch.” It’s which coating system survives the AZ sun, which substrate stays dimensionally stable under the heat-cycle, and which color hides a decade of dust without going chalky. This page is the long answer.

Coating systems.

For a deeper read on PVDF vs SMP and why we lean PVDF in Arizona, see the residential and segment pages.

Wood-grain printed metal.

This is the finish that surprises people. The substrate is steel. The finish is a multi-layer print of a real wood grain pattern (usually walnut, cedar, or weathered barnwood). The protective layer is a clear PVDF topcoat. Up close it reads as printed. Within ten feet it reads as stained wood. From the curb it reads as finished cedar siding that doesn’t warp, doesn’t rot, doesn’t burn, and holds its color for thirty years.

We use it most often for:

• Accent walls on board-and-batten residential, especially modern farmhouse and contemporary
• Fascia covers where the rest of the trim is white or charcoal and the fascia is meant to read as a stained wood band
• Soffit ceilings on covered patios and outdoor kitchens. The look of a stained tongue-and-groove ceiling with none of the maintenance.
• Commercial accents. Restaurant facades, retail entry portals, tower features where a “warm wood” read is the design call but fire-code or maintenance rules out real wood.
• Barndominium and shop builds where you want one wall of wood-look and the rest of the building in a flat earth tone

We carry several grain patterns and stain tones. Ask for samples on the call.

Substrates.

• Galvalume® steel. 55% aluminum / 43.5% zinc / 1.5% silicon coating over carbon steel. The standard substrate for our snap-lock standing seam, walls, and trim. Excellent corrosion resistance, the right pick for almost every Arizona project.
• Aluminum (.032). Used for fascias, soffits, gutters, and projects that require galvanic compatibility or that sit in direct contact with concrete or masonry. Lighter, won’t rust at cut edges, more expensive per panel.

Cool-roof certification.

The Cool Roof Rating Council certifies roofing products by Solar Reflectance Index (SRI), a number that combines reflectance and emissivity into a single “how cool does this roof stay in summer sun” score. Arizona’s energy codes (and most California-style cool-roof rebate programs) reward an SRI of ≥0.78 on low-slope roofs and ≥0.25 on steep-slope. We carry cool-pigment PVDF colors that hit the 0.78 threshold even in mid-tone earth colors that look anything but white from the street. That’s the trick: cool-pigment PVDF reflects in the near-infrared band, where most of the heat lives, while staying visually saturated in the visible band. You don’t have to pick a chalky beige to get the 0.78 number anymore.

Materials Available

34 finishes. One coil run.

Every finish below is on the standard Sheffield Metals color card. We can custom-match any color from a chip on request. Lead time goes from a few days to a few weeks for custom runs.

Environmentally Smart

25 finishes

Kynar 500® PVDF over Galvalume. 30-year fade and chalk warranty.

• Terra Cotta

• Aged Copper

• Solar White

• Sandstone

• Surrey Beige

• Colonial Red

• Patina Green

• Regal White

• Ash Gray

• Sierra Tan

• Regal Red

• Hemlock Green

• Stone White

• Dove Gray

• Medium Bronze

• Burgundy

• Hartford Green

• Slate Blue

• Slate Gray

• Mansard Brown

• Matte Black

• Evergreen

• Regal Blue

• Charcoal Gray

• Dark Bronze

Metallics

5 finishes

Reflective metallic finishes including real copper and pre-weathered galvalume.

• Silver

• Copper

• Champagne

• Pre-Weathered Galvalume

• Acrylic Coated Galvalume

Weathered & Raw

4 finishes

Pre-aged finishes that ship looking lived-in. Cor-Ten, Galv-Ten, Vintage.

• Galv-Ten Raw

• Copper-Ten Raw

• Cor-Ten AZP Raw

• Vintage

Web colors are approximations. Always confirm against a real chip before ordering. Most colors above are available in cool-pigment formulation for SRI ≥0.78.

Tucson Water rebate compatibility.

Galvanized, aluminum, and polymer-coated panels (which is essentially everything we fab: Kynar/SMP-coated Galvalume and aluminum) are accepted catchment surfaces under the Tucson Water rainwater harvesting rebate. Important: the rebate is on the harvesting system (the cistern, supply lines, earthworks), not on the panels or the roof itself. The rebate also requires the homeowner to take a free 3-hour Tucson Water rainwater harvesting workshop before the rebate is approved. We mention this here and on the residential page, and not anywhere else, because it’s specific to homeowners and specific to Tucson Water service area.

Pairs with.

• Snap-Lock Standing Seam Panels. The flagship roof system in any of these coatings.
• Walls & Flush Siding. Same coating list applied to wall panels.
• Residential. The application-side overview, including the rebate program detail.