Roofs

The roof is indeed one of the most important parts of the house. A common problem is that it’s fairly the least accessible place for cleaning. Who does want anyway to leave their roof to rot? It is always best to keep the roof clean and free of leaves and debris. The roof is made to protect and shelter the homeowners from the harsh elements of nature so it must be well maintained.

Chances are if you have trees at home, you will likely to have roof problems. The part of the roof that gets the most shade from the nearby trees has the most accumulation of fallen leaves. If this is not dealt with accordingly, your roof can become a haven of insects and bacteria. Flower spores, animal hairs, fibers and even seeds are brought along with the wind. And if they got stuck in your roof, it’s going to be a mess. Worst is, serious of accumulation can help deteriorate your roofing.

Why bother anyway when nobody can look at your roof. But then again, the roof is still part of the house, inasmuch as you want your living room to be clean, you don’t want to have a house where the ceiling is dripping water.

Pressure washers are great to help your clean the roof. However, years of usage and experience tell that pressure washers do have their disadvantage. They can ruin your roofing, specifically the shingles. Pressure washers exert a lot of pressure and effort so moss and stains are easily removed. To avoid damage to the roof, you must use pressure washer spray rod that has a 25-degree tip. When spraying, the distance between the tip of the pressure washer sprayer rod and the shingles should be around 1 foot.

After a few minutes if the stains don’t get removed, try lowering the tip of the pressure washer sprayer rod but don’t go any closer than 6 inches. In this distance, you should start seeing the moss and molds get peeled off. Once in a while you try to look at the shingles if you notice some traces of damage, if so, you have to stop spraying water on it to prevent further damage on your roof shingles.

A good alternative to this method of cleaning is the manual approach. It may be a tiresome task for you but it’s going to be worth it as it can help preserve your roofing. Use a brush to aid you in getting rid of the dirt. But if you can’t help it, you can use an ordinary garden water hose.

Copper strips are also great to maintain cleanliness on your roof. After you are done with the brushing, you will have to place these copper strips that are 3 inches in length on the ridge lining of the roof. However if you noticed that your roof shingles already had these copper strips, then there is no need to do so. The purpose of this copper lining is to prevent the roof shingles from getting algae and lichen formation.

Bear in mind though that algae and moss formation cannot directly damage your roof. Aside from giving you a slippery walk when you clean it, the roof can get ugly to look at when viewed a relative distance. When you scrub the roof make sure to use non-harmful chemicals. Chlorine is not really a good idea to use. Chlorine is an oxidizer and you don’t want to see your gutter getting rusty.

To be safe, you can use an ordinary floor-cleaning agent. Mix in considerable amount in a pail of water and that should help you tidy up your roof.

When cleaning your roof, always observe safety on your side. Algae accumulation is definitely slippery, so to avoid accident, wear harness to keep you from falling. It is always best to start cleaning from the edge of the roof up towards the center.