Here at Cleaned With Care Ltd we are considered to be experts in roof moss removal and there’s probably good reason why!
We have carried out 100’s of roof cleans on buildings of various ages, including listed buildings throughout London, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey & Oxfordshire, leaving a trial of extremely satisfied clients along the way, many of whom have left great feedback for us on Checkatrade & Google.
In this article I would like to highlight the reasons why our clients choose to have moss removed from their roof tiles, discuss the various methods along with their pro’s and cons along and talk about the roof cleaning prices throughout the south east.
We have found that many of our clients carry out in depth research around the pro’s and con’s of having moss removed from their roofs and of course the risks associated with carrying out this work.
When you choose a roof cleaning contractor who cares about your roof then the benefits heavily outweigh the potential risks of having your roof moss removed.
We clean your roof with utmost care and attention to detail.
The lifespan of the tiles on your roof will be extended after the successful removal of moss, lichen and algae. These living organisms slowly cause damage to your tiles as they grip tightly to the face of your tiles initially causing hairline surface cracks. Years of harsh winters with moss on the surface causes the surface hairline cracks to deepen and widen causing broken tiles and even holes in some concrete tiles! This happens because moss holds water which expands when it freezes, causing any minor damage to potentially escalate over time.
Stopping moss falling from roof’s is important to many of our clients, it can be one of those unwanted daily jobs to constantly be clearing fallen moss from the driveway, patio, pathways or from your roof or bonnet of your beloved car!
The only way to stop moss falling is to completely remove it from the roof of your house.
The gutters of your home are designed to take rain water from your roof and safely away to soakaways beneath the ground, protecting your home from water ingress, damp and potential structural problems.
Moss is normally the culprit when it comes to blocked downpipes (along with the odd tennis ball!), removing the moss from your roof stops it from falling into your gutters to start with.
Having a clean roof on your home most certainly improves the visual aesthetics of your property, potentially adding value to your home. If your home is going on the market then cleaning the roof and gutters can be a worthwhile investment as you are able to pass on the peace of mind along with your moss free guarantee (provided by all reputable roof cleaning companies, including ourselves) to the buyers of your home.
Unfortunately there is always a risk that moss is hiding damage that is already present on your roof, however any problems that are there will not remedy themselves – they will only get worse over time. Manual roof scraping instead of high pressure washing allows the contractors to be more delicate around areas where damage is present – preventing any unnecessary further damage.
Another risk is that your chosen roof moss removal company will damage tiles on your roof during the cleaning process – no contractor can guarantee not to break a single tile but the main thing you need is honesty and them to repair any tiles broken in the process.
Here at Cleaned With Care Ltd we are one of few roof cleaning companies nationwide that have invested in our own cherry picker and mobile access tower. This means that our roof team are able to clean the vast majority of roofs without going onto the roof itself – massively reducing the chance of causing any damage to your roof!
We have heard of many horror stories where unscrupulous tradesmen sell roof cleaning, carry out a terrible job while causing damage to roofs and then leave a heap of mess behind – saying their job was to clean the roof, not take away the mess!
None of that nonsense here at Cleaned With Care Ltd, our small and friendly team ensure that every clients property is left tidier than when we arrived! We use tarpaulins to protect grass and gravel from falling moss and ensure that all hard ground surfaces are throughly cleaned up. We are licensed waste carriers so are able to take all roof and gutter waste away with us and dispose of it at a licensed waste disposal site.
Many of our clients have a genuine concern over the safety of their chosen roof cleaners and rightly so.
As a company we take safety very seriously and never take any risks when it comes to the safety of our clients, staff, the general public, animals and wildlife.
For this reason our day on site always starts with a risk assessment, cones/barriers are used to protect the public from our works, signs warning that man are working overhead are set out and then our works commence.
Our team vary rarely need to go onto any roof as they are equipped with mobile access towers and our own 17.75 meter cherry picker to allow them to clean your roof as safely as physically possible. The team are of course trained, qualified and fully insured to use both these methods of access.
There are many methods of cleaning a roof, all of which have their advantages and disadvantages. These are the 4 most commonly used ways to get rid of moss from roofs.
There are many roof pressure washing companies out there that will clean your roof. This is usually the cheapest method of cleaning your roof – also the most likely to cause damage.
Risks of pressure washing a roof include:
Bleach is commonly used after a manual scrape of of a roof to give an instant clean. We are not fans of softwashing roofs even though there is very little chance of damage to your roof following manual roof moss removal.
The biggest risk of softwashing is airbourne sodium hypochlorite (bleach), as the softwash solution is sprayed onto your roof particles are carried by the wind with no control where they land – potentially causing harm to the roof cleaning contractors themselves, passing pedestrians & animals.
If the chemical comes into contact with any surface other than your roof then it has the potential to cause un reversible damage, items most at risks would be garden plants, garden furniture, wooden window and conservatory frames & convertible car roofs.
Softwashing your roof correctly will give a perfectly uniformed clean, with the result visible on the same day as the removal of roof moss is carried out.
Softwashing certainly has its place in the external cleaning industry but we feel that the rooftops of domestic homes is certainly not the place – just our thoughts though!
There are few companies that offer roof steam cleaning. This type of roof cleaning should always be carried out under very low pressure with a low flow rate of around 6 -10 ltrs per minute heated to around 140 degrees.
Steam cleaning will leave your roof beautifully clean immediately after cleaning has finished.
Although steam cleaning is carried out under low pressure it does still come with a risk of water ingress which is always a worry when it comes to the roof of your home.
Manual roof moss removal followed by a biocidal roof wash is the most gentle and long lasting solution to cleaning your roof – especially when carried out entirely from cherry pickers and mobile access towers as opposed to roof ladders.
Your roof moss is scraped manually from your roof tiles before a biocidal roof wash is applied. Once applied the roof wash kills any remaining living organisms on your roof, including moss spores and lichen. Over a period of 3 to 6 months your roof tiles then return to somewhere near their original colour as the surface dirt is lifted from the tiles by the biocide combined with weathering. The biocide then repels future moss growth for 5-10 years or even longer in some cases.
The cost of roof moss removal and cleaning varies heavily throughout the country, obviously in the south east roof cleaning is more expensive than in the north.
There are many factors involved in coming to the quoted price for any roof clean including:
Any reputable roof cleaning company will have the following overheads:
There are adverts from companies offering cheap roof cleaning from as little as £300, however in our experience it is simply not possible to provide a complete, guaranteed and fully insured service with prices so low!
Over 100’s of roof cleans carried out by our team we have streamlined the process to be as efficient, tidy and as gently on your roof as physically possible.
Our team start each roof clean by protecting all necessary ground areas using tarpaulins.
The clean itself is carried out either from our cherry picker or from our mobile access tower assembled so a standing platform is at gutter height for our team.
Extendable poles with roof moss scraping tools are then used to scrape moss away from your roof tiles before the biocidal roof wash is applied to your roof.
All roof and gutter waste is then removed from site for licensed waste disposal.
Once your roof clean is complete you will be covered by our 5 year moss free guarantee whereby if moss was to start to regrow at anytime within 5 years we would happily return, free of charge to reapply the chemical.
We simply let our previous clients do the talking fo us: