Is It Better To Power Wash Or Scrape Mold Off My Roof?

By Author: Leonard Simmons
Total Articles: 152
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The question of whether to power wash or scrape mold off your roof is simple: Both need to work together in order get your roof looking and functioning at its best.
The purpose of the roof washing process is to eliminate mold and fungal growth and to remove contaminated materials. Simply killing the mold with a chemical is not enough. The mold must be removed since the chemicals and proteins, which cause a reaction in humans, are still present, even in dead mold.
Removing mold from the roof of a house is not only important in the prevention of a number of serious health conditions; it also gives an overall better look to the house. While there are a number of ways to remove roof mold, some of the best include using chlorine bleach solutions and copper sulfate solutions. In addition, preventing the growth of roof mold to begin with will eliminate the need to get rid of it.
Many homeowners are surprised to discover that once-clean asphalt shingles are being slowly covered with a form of roof mold or mildew that appears as a light discoloration and spreads down the roof toward the gutters. Black roof stains ...
... are caused by a form of algae that has been around for years, typically found in the woods on the north side of trees or on exposed rocks. But now this black algae is termed a roof shingle algae because of the annoying discoloration on an asphalt shingle roof.
The roof algae actually feed on crushed limestone that is present in shingles from most asphalt roof manufacturers. The algae are spread by wind and animals from roof to roof and are almost impossible to prevent.
The good news is that stain removal is possible using a professional roof cleaning service. A roof cleaning business, rather than a handyman service, has experience using shingle cleaning techniques and has equipment to wash the roof with appropriate pressure. A pro roof cleaner’s years of experience will typically result in more complete removal of roof stains.
High pressure jet washing or scraping of roofs are not recommended by roofing professionals as both methods remove granules from the protective coating of tiles. Each time these aggressive cleaning methods are used, tiles are made more porous. When granules have been removed, this encourages roof growth to return as the surface stays damp longer. Also, spores are not killed by these methods, meaning in a short time the problem will be worse than before.
Choose a gentle approach, which produces better long term results and does no harm to any type of roof surface. Excess roof mold is safely removed by brush. Then roofs are gently rinsed at low pressure with our high performance roof cleaning solution. The pressure used is no stronger than rainfall which will not cause damage to any tiles or slates.
Over a period of a few months, all growth is slowly broken down and will fall into the gutters. As all spores are killed, growth will take much longer to return.

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Get more information: http://www.cedarroofsnw.com