“Why should I get my roof cleaned?”
Sometimes when customers come to us, they know precisely why they need to clean their roofs. Others may need to learn what damage moss can do.
Let’s start with the most obvious. We have customers contact us when moss has become too much of a problem because they have let it build up to a problematic level. Allowing the moss to build and build can prevent your roof and gutter system from correctly draining away water. If the water has nowhere to go, it will most likely find where it can go—resulting in water forcing its way under the tiles and into the roof area, which can cause significant damage to wooden joists. It can also wreck floorboards and pass through the house via ceilings. We have seen terrible property damage from too much moss on a tiled roof.
We are talking about an extreme case, and thankfully we have yet to see that many, but if a moss roof is left to get to these advanced stages, it can be a significant problem.
The UK Climate is a breeding ground for moss, lichen and organic growth. If you live in a shaded area and your roof doesn’t get a lot of sunlight, the site will remain more damp than if the location had good sunlight. Dark spots can be the most affected, and organic growth will flourish if left untreated.
Roof cleaning is becoming increasing popular. Aside from the Moss problem, the UK climate is breeding; there is one other advantage of why to get your roof cleaned. It simply looks great!
More clients who own new builds are contacting us because, within a year or two, their brand-new, picturesque home is not looking all new and shiny. Yellow Unsightly Lichen, or Algae, has started to grow. We can prevent this from happening by spraying your roof with a DDAC 40% Biocide treatment. It’s best to do it before organic matter has time to develop. The reason is if we add our treatment to your roof once the stains of moss have evolved, it can take anywhere from six to eighteen months for the biocide to of killed off and remove all staining from your roof. We could remove it instantly using our steam cleaning machines, but this would incur more charge as it’s more timely and involves more equipment. Once we have added the biocide treatment, we guarantee your roof for four years that no moss will return.
It’s not just new roofs that look great once cleaned. 95% of all roofs we work on have a Wow factor once they return to their clean state and tile colour. Some of the best roofs we have worked on that look great are of a red tile colour. These roofs zing in colour once we have returned them to their original condition. Lots of other colour tiles look phenomenal too.
Some roofs on older properties may be less than 100% consistent in colour due to the age of the tiles. Some may have had tiles replaced, which are a slightly different colour. But again, in our experience, most roofs we look work on typically have a vast improvement in their appearance.
To be as honest and transparent as possible, we need to tell you about the 5% we work on that could be better. Sometimes your property tile surface may have lost its original colour. We have worked on some roofs where the outcome has ended up multicoloured because the tiles were coated on production. Underneath that coating, raw tile material is a different colour. Over time that treated colour has eroded, revealing the bare tile colour. We have had this happen on a few older properties, and it is less likely to occur on roofs under thirty to forty years old.
The other issue we have had, and this is rare. A roof may be dark when we start. Once we have cut through all the grime with our Steam cleaning machines, a roof may have a different colour tile added after the property’s original build if your property has had an extension at some point. The builder may not have matched or been able to match up the actual tile colour. We would only know once we have stripped back all the organic matter and revealed the original colour tile. Again in the thousand or so roofs we have cleaned, we have probably seen it twice.
The last reason you may receive a poor result is that your roof tile may be an artificial slate or, in more official terms, Asbestos Cement tiles. Asbestos Cement tiles we popular in the 20th century due to being very cheap to buy. If we visit a property and can see they are asbestos tiles, we will decline to be able to help you. We could add a biocide treatment to the roof if it had no moss to scrape. But asbestos tiles’ natural colour is a mottled, pale grey. The treatment we would add would restore that colour, and it would be very unsightly. If we are unsure on the tile type on your roof we can always send a sample away for testing to determine whether it’s 100% an asbestos roof. If a customer wants us to do that, we can, but it would be chargeable.
Hopefully, the above gives you some good insight into “Why should I get my roof cleaned?” We are always here to help and can talk with you more in-depth if needed.
Please get in touch with us on the form below, and we will be only too happy to help you further.