Who has had their roof cleaned?

[R.O.S.S.I]

Ours it getting quite mossy and i'm wondering if it's really worth it as i've had some fairly hefty quotes to get it done - I think largely because they need to use scaffolding to do it.

My roof from the outside looks to be in overall good nick and theres no issues that I know about inside in the loft (touch wood), aside from it being a high ticket preventative bit of maintenance i'm wondering just how many people have had it done and how long you left your roof before you decided to get it cleaned. I'd go as far as say this roof hasn't ever been cleaned and is a 1970's "traditional" semi.

I always like to get preventative maintenence stuff done when money allows but this is a bit of a more expensive one so just wondering if i can hold off for another few more years.

 

[dlockers]

Definitely not worth it IMO.

 

[cjgardens]

What sort of quotes have you had? A mate of mine used to charge £350 for a semi. He didnt use scaffolding

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Why? It’s not preventing anything?

 

[decto]

I see some around me, often the tiles look a washed out grey after.
Not something I'd bother with

 

[Participant]

A mate of mine used to charge £350 for a semi.

 

[dave28]

What sort of quotes have you had? A mate of mine used to charge £350 for a semi. He didnt use scaffolding

Very reasonable depending on how much cleaning of course, any jobs like that pay quite well now. Gone are the days when people would do it for really low money

 

[jpaul]

have concrete roof tiles and these grow moss, on N side, versus some of the neighbours with fired tiles,
haven't yet tried to clean it myself (imagine aluminium pole with a scraper ?), but it is a pain, that after heavy rain, you get lumps of moss on the patio

 

[Mysterae_]

I've had the roof cleaned at a cost of £1,800.

That sounds like a lot (and it is!) but considering it took 4 blokes 2 days scraping away (not jet-washing) on quite a large roof that had terrible moss and lichen build up, and it's a job I refuse to do myself (heights), I suppose there's value there. That was without them using scaffolding mind.

As to why I got it done - the north facing part of the roof was pretty bad with moss and lichen as I said before and I wanted it treated afterwards to prevent build up later as we are surrounded by trees. The moss and lichen act like a giant sponge and so when it's wet it's a considerable amount of additional weight on the roof, even more when there's snow on top too. When it freezes it can lift and crack the roof tiles. It doesn't look particularly great either. I was getting the guttering, soffits, facias and dry ridge replaced at the same time so it was part of a bigger job.

Here's a drone shot of 1/6th of the roof to give you an idea of how bad it was!

Just make sure they redirect your gutter's drains if you aren't connected to a main sewer. They didn't with mine and consequently blocked up the soakaways with a lot of the crap from the roof, you'd think they'd know this!

Very reasonable depending on how much cleaning of course, any jobs like that pay quite well now. Gone are the days when people would do it for really low money

I believe you're right. When researching it ages ago I discovered there's a few youtube channels about roof cleaning and they do charge a lot.

 

[radderfire]

I always like to get preventative maintenence stuff done when money allows but this is a bit of a more expensive one so just wondering if i can hold off for another few more years.

Pics would help the assessment.

I would agree that one of the main issues is extra weight from water adsorption by the moss and greater potential for water damage when freezing. If it's not that mossy, then it's largely a cosmetic issue.

 

[EvilRob]

Would like to get mine done at some point. Gutter down pipes get blocked up with moss washing off the roof every year.

 

[PlacidCasual]

We did it but I regret it. Did a some damage to ridge tile mortar in lots of places and has given us all sorts of issues. We thought we had selected a decent contractor but you live and learn.

 

[sovietspybob]

I've heard bad stories about having it done, our old house was concrete type tiles and had moss and some of the neighbours had it cleaned off and some stuff painted over it.

Most that had it done had some story about leaks afterwards with the roof being disturbed so factor some remedial work in if you're having it done.

 

[BUDFORCE]

If it ain't broke......

 

[Quartz]

Ours it getting quite mossy and i'm wondering if it's really worth it as i've had some fairly hefty quotes to get it done - I think largely because they need to use scaffolding to do it.

Go to YouTube and look up Partridge Exterior Cleaning.

One thing I've learned is that it's very worth doing if you are considering selling your house.

 

[Dynix]

We had ours cleaned a few months after we moved into our house to help tidy up the overall appearance of the house (1930s) and help the gutters clogging up so often. It was around £600 - that was for one guy with a MiTower, hand scraped, biocide treatment and then cleaned out the gutters. Night and day difference, very pleased.

We purposely refrained from using someone who used steam or a jet wash.

 

[Simon42]

I have around 180m2 of roof and didn't clean it, I just removed loose moss with a brush and then treated to stop the endless moss in the gutters blocking the downpipes and soakaways.

Several years on and the roof is pristine and other than the odd leaf the gutters are clear. Cost me under £100 or chemical and I used my existing window cleaning carbon fibre pole and tower scaffolding. What's shocking is the quotes I received to do it would have more than paid for the pole and tower scaffolding by some margin even if I didn't have them already!

 

[Mysterae_]

We did it but I regret it. Did a some damage to ridge tile mortar in lots of places and has given us all sorts of issues. We thought we had selected a decent contractor but you live and learn.

It might have been too late to do anything by that point or the contractor was just a bit too rough. You hear of roofs where it's the moss that's holding it together. I viewed a property where the flat roof above the extended kitchen looked like a badly kept bowling green.

Always make sure you get a note of their insurance before committing to the job. If they don't have any insurance then don't use them, they are either too tight to pay it from their profits or they are uninsurable due to past problems/claims.

 

[jpaul]

Always make sure you get a note of their insurance before committing to the job. If they don't have any insurance then don't use them

yes but they won't accept unlimited liability if the roof mortar proves to be in a poor state of repair,

if the process they use doesn't involve standing on roof, as Simon42's process suggests, that reduces risk of disturbing mortar.

 

[Axeboy]

I had mine done years back as I just didnt like the way it looked.

Didnt make any difference. Moss grew back, but actually the moss was a pretty good extra layer of protection in the high winds, haha