Roof cleaning is an important of home maintenance – if you don’t do it, you stand to suffer more damage to your home than if you were unable to do other types of maintenance.
Thankfully, even though it is critical, it’s not necessarily more complicated. Read below to know how to clean a roof.
The first step is to clear the roof and the ground below. If you have to, is a blower to wipe out dried leaves and other debris. Clean the drainage and see to it that the water drains well.
Clear the ground of any furniture. Cover it with plastic if the grass matters. Remember that when cleaning a roof, you do it with chemicals and you certainly don’t want to do any damage to the other parts of your property.
Once you’re done with initial cleaning, it’s time to prepare your cleaning tools, including the cleaning chemicals and water sprayer.
While there are many green cleaning products for your roof, they can be quite expensive. You can save more money and get great results if you just mix one quart standard laundry bleach and one gallon water. That’s .95 liters of bleach and 3.8 liters of water. For extra cleaning power, add a quarter cup of TSP (trisodium phosphate).
When the cleaning mixture is ready, set it aside. Get a water hose and soak the roof shingles with water. Start from the bottom and carefully wet the shingles so they don’t dry right away
Next, load the cleaning solution onto a sprayer. Use slow and even strokes to coat the shingles. Be careful not to miss any spots otherwise your roof will come out spotted. When you are done spraying, leave it to soak for 15 to 20 minutes.
After that, use the water hose to rinse the roof. Make sure to cover every inch of your roof by moving slowly. The moss and algae should easily come off. If there’s only a light stain on your roof, you will only have to do this process once. But if you have a heavy coat of green, you should repeat this process 30 minutes after you are done with the initial cleaning.
A word of warning: do NOT use a power washer because it can damage or wear away the shingles.
When you’re satisfied with the results, sit back and relax. And maybe wait until algae appears again.