How To Clean Roof Shingles
Partners With
Roof Cleaning The Proper Way
Roof Cleaning has a few steps involved, the first and most important step is identifying what treatment is going to be needed to get the roof cleaned, with the least amount of collateral damage to the roof itself, and the landscaping if there is any. In this article we go through the entire process from start to finish, if you are going to have a professional clean your roof. This article is about how the pro is thinking when the walk the property, and about what methods they are thinking about using.
What Is The Algae On Your Shingles?
Diagnosing what treatment to use when roof cleaning is as simple as taking a walk through the property with a professional. A professional will be able to take a look into what is actually growing on your roof, and will know the correct application in order to treat the algae and the amount of time it will take to remove it.
Let’s talk about the two types of algae we come in contact with on a daily basis.
Two Common Types Of Algae On Your Roof
Fire Moss – Fire Moss is less common than the Gloeocapsa Magma below but is still very prevalent on many roof substrates, from cedar shake to asphalt shingles, it loves to latch on and reproduce. When fire moss gets out of hand, it will push up your shingles allowing water to get underneath and severely degrading your roof.
Gloeocapsa Magma – This is the old “black streak on my roof” culprit. It is most common on Asphalt shingles and can is a spore based algae, it lives on the limestone in your shingles. When it feeds it degrades the limestone and eventually if left untreated, will take over the whole roof making it look “all black” when that is not the color of the shingle itself, that is in fact the algae growing on the shingle.
Roof Cleaning With A Pressure Washer
Some may believe that you can clean your roof simply with a pressure washer, and while that would probably work theoretically, using a pressure washer for roof cleaning is the “kiss of death” for the integrity of that roof. Especially if you are trying to clean an asphalt shingle roof. The granules will start to come off and will end up in the gutters, which can and does happen normally with age, but speeding up the aging process for the roof, is not the best idea and is something we avoid.
What Is The Best Way To Clean A Roof
We get this question all the time through some of the guys that we train and through clients who are interested and concerned about the treatment involved. There are different ways to clean different substrates, but lets review the most common substrate and how to clean asphalt shingles.
Cleaning Asphalt Shingles
Asphalt shingles, per the manufacturer, are not supposed to be walked upon or have anything applied to them over the pressure of a common garden hose, which is about 70 psi. So when cleaning an asphalt shingle roof, one should take great care in applying only the right amount of chemical and a very low pressure in order to keep the shingle in tact and to maintain its long life. Roof Cleaning at a low pressure, allows you to treat and kill the algae, but not harm any of the structural integrity of the roof itself.
This process is commonly referred to as soft washing in the industry and is simply a means of allowing the chemical to do the cleaning as opposed to high pressure. It is the safest and best way to clean your roof and your asphalt shingles.
Chemical Ratios For Cleaning Roof Algae
When you are thinking about having that nasty algae removed from your roof, consider hiring a professional; someone who is used to using chemicals around high end landscape and will take care of your house as if it were their own. Great care should be taken when starting down the road of getting your roof cleaned, as the dangers of killing any landscaping are high if the person does not understand their chemicals capabilities and does not understand their rinse process completely.
After you inspect where the gutters (if you have them) exit and you confirm that they don’t exit directly into any plants or trees, you can begin with the next part of the process. Chemical Ratios.
Since the most common form of algaecide used in the professional pressure washing industry is 12.5% Sodium Hypochlorite (Pool Shock), the next few sections are going to explain exactly what chemical ratios you are going to want to use when cleaning roof shingles. The mixtures below are going to range from most concentrated to least concentrated and I will also explain why you would choose to use either.
Ps: Consumers are only going to be able to purchase bleach at the hardware store at 6.5% (nearly half the potency of what the professionals will be able to purchase.
- 75% Sodium Hypochlorite – 25% Water – This mixture would be used for hearty algae, fire moss and lichen.
- 50% Sodium Hypochlorite – 50% Water – This mixture could be used for black streaks or gloeocapsa magma, or light black algae.
- 25% Sodium Hypochlorite – 75% Water – For the lighter Gloeocapsa Magma stains, we wouldn’t use this mixture on fire moss or real hearty algae.
So after you have your pool shock and water mixed in your garden sprayer, we are going to climb on the roof and start delivering the goods to this algae. (Ps: Be very careful when getting on your roof, if you cannot climb well or are scared of heights just hire a professional to complete the entire process.)
Roof Cleaning Process Step-By-Step
- Protect All Vegetation – Pre Soak and Direct Flow Of Gutters – Before we get started cleaning our roof we want to make sure that all vegetation is completely pre-soaked, with water.
- Mix Your Roof Cleaning Chemicals in your garden sprayer.
- Start High On The Roof – Work your way from top to bottom applying and even coat of roof cleaning chemical.
- Less Chemical Is More
- Double Treat Problem Areas – If algae hasn’t disappeared or turned a white color within 5 minutes of applying the first coat of roof cleaning chemical, reapply in the same fashion.
- Re-Soak Plants that could have received mist or a coating from the Pool Shock mixture that you just applied.
- Safely come down from the roof on a ladder and allow the process to work organically. After applying there is nothing else that you need to do, just let the chemical do the work.
In Conclusion: Roof Cleaning Is Effective
Hiring a professional roof cleaning company may be the way to go if you have an unwalkable roof. They’re going to have all of the proper equipment and will protect your landscape along with reducing liability because their pumps can shoot high enough that they do not need to climb on the roof to clean it. All in all, roof cleaning can lengthen the life of your roof, as the algae is currently eating the limestone in the shingles reducing the life of the shingles dramatically making them brittle after deterioration. Roof Cleaning can kill the algae at the spore level and a proper roof cleaning should last at least 3 years, unless your home sits under mass amounts of canopy and has a lot of vegetation dropping on it year round or problems with drainage on the roof (valleys etc).
Have your roof cleaned to extend the life of your investment, we all know it wasn’t cheap.
If you are looking for roof cleaning in South Florida or need to request service,
then please call SRT Pressure Washing at 954-300-1217 or complete our online request form.
