How To Clean Your Roof – Step by Step

Over the years that we have been carrying out roof cleaning jobs, I can count on one hand how many times a customer has directly told me that they need their roof cleaning or if they even need it done in the first place.

A lot of the roof cleaning business that we have seen has come from our gutter cleaning services. When we take a look at the current state of a lot of roof’s in our area, we relay this back to our customer, and go through all of the reasons why having a clean roof is definitely worth your time

The main problem you will run into (especially here in the UK) is seeing a lot of moss build-up from all of the moisture that is trapped in between the roof tiles as well as the heat that rises up through the house and gently heats up the underside of the roof as well.

This makes for the perfect conditions for moss to start growing and it can cause a few issues that you may not have immediately thought about.

Excess moisture can lead to a few long-term problems and end up costing you some money if you don’t take care of the problem head-on!

Moisture seeping through the roof tiles and eventually into your loft and causing mold problems later down the line is a strong possibility if you don’t have your roof cleaned and protect against build-up.

Along with moisture seepage, dampened roof tiles become less structurally sound over time and will start showing cracks and breakages in the material. The more cracks that appear, the higher the risk of water pouring through on rainy days and causes rot and mold to start growing on any wooden beams and insulation materials.

This may surprise a few people when you read through this issue with roof cleaning but a mossy roof can also cause energy bills to start creeping their way up as well.

Let me explain…

Hot air rises upwards through your house and has to escape through the small gaps in between your roof tiles when it reaches your loft.

If your roof is covered in moss and is blocking these gaps where the hot air is escaping from, all of this warmth will be trapped in the top floor rooms and loft in your house.

You may be thinking “A nice warm house? That sounds great!” But if you’ve ever been in a loft on a summer’s day at the best of times, then you’ll know that this isn’t the holiday home in Spain that everyone is thinking of.

Clearing your roof of any debris will clear up any blockages and allow for smooth ventilation all throughout the house and won’t leave you spending more money on air conditioning to cool the house back down to normal again.

Moss strikes again!

Moss and algae build-ups are the major causes of damage to your roof. Unfortunately, moss likes growing on cement, as in it REALLY likes growing on cement…

The problem with this is that cement is used to join roof tiles together and is usually the main component in tile joints as well.

Moss and algae will slowly start breaking these bonds if not tended to quickly and cause tiles to break off which can lead to more expensive repair costs as opposed to hiring a professional to clean your roof for you.

All of the build-up from moss and algae that I have covered before won’t just stop causing havoc to your roof, it can start causing blockages in your guttering as well.

A lot of the bigger blockages that we deal with on a regular basis come from down-pipes being filled up with debris that has been building up from months if not years of moss tumbling down into it.

You can see what having a blocked down-pipe will do to your guttering at home and why you would need to have this cleared out by reading one of our other articles about gutter cleaning.

Although we are a pressure washing business, we don’t use this approach with every job that we undertake.

The reason for why we would be extremely hesitant to use a pressure washer when carrying out a roof cleaning job is that roof’s aren’t really designed to take on high-pressure water jets at closer range.

Keeping out rainfall is about as far as much as you want your roof to withstand. Depending on what kind of roof tiles you have, some cheaper materials used for roof tiles have a thin paint layer that starts to wear down and reveal the more porous material beneath it.

Using a pressure washer in this scenario would simply accelerate this process and potentially lessen the lifespan of your roof tiles.

That’s why we would always suggest cleaning your roof the old-fashioned way and using a bit of elbow grease, a plastic scooper, a hand fork for more stubborn pieces of moss, and getting your hands dirty with some heavy duty gardening gloves.

For longer lasting effects, we would also suggest using a fungicide or some kind of anti-moss chemical solution which is designed to kill off any living organisms that you spray it on.

Once you’ve finished scraping down as much of the moss and algae build up as you can. Spray the solution into all of the nooks and crannies that you can see that show any signs of moss build-up so we can start setting you up for some preventative measures!

Talking about ‘preventative measures’, we have a few tips that you can use or hire a professional to put in place for you to help reduce the amount of moss and algae build up on your roof so you can get the best value possible from your roof cleaning experience.

Moss, as we have pointed out many times in this blog post, is a very stubborn organism and can find its way into just about anywhere which is both damp and warm. However, we can use materials that they don’t like to line our roofs with to help fight back against running rampant on our roof again!

Using zinc strips is a great way of combating this issue. Zinc strips work by creating an environment that isn’t habitable for things such as moss and algae. Lichen and moss don’t get along well with zinc as it contains chemicals that they find poisonous and thus won’t be growing back any time soon!

If you would like to have a professional roof cleaner clean your house within the Milton Keynes (and surrounding) area, then get in touch with us today and we’ll be more than happy to help talk through what needs to be done to get your house looking back to its best!