Removing moss from tiled roof

[Nesty1760]

Hi All

What is the best way to remove moss from a tiled rooftop, is it just elbow grease or can you spray a chemical's to dissolve it, this is causing my guttering issues, though it's on a 3 roofs in this vain.

Thanks

[nuyorican]

Could blast it off with a pressure washer perhaps?

[Evanivitch]

Chemical treatment, avoid anything that will stain (ferrous sulphate) or use gutter brushes to keep gutters more clear.

I would personally avoid pressure washing and scraping.

[craig1912]

Don’t pressure wash as it can damage the roof.

Scrape rinse off and then spray with a biocide which will help stop it coming back.

[Magicmushroom666]

I sprayed my roof with BAC50 which is very strong so diluted it down heavily. I think its the same stuff as in patiomagic etc. I sprayed it once, or maybe twice, and it took probably 2 years to completely clear, but the roof come up like new.
However if you have gutter problems now, it'll get much worse doing it like this, I had gutters constantly being blocked while the stuff died and fell down in the rain.
Benefit is its low effort, just spray on and wait!

[Nesty1760]

OK, many thanks for the prompt responses appreciated.

I am not overall comfortable working at height, I don't have a tower. The moss never been taken off in my ownership 25 years, there's quite a bit.

I need to get the guttering done, but this needs to be done first, IE start at the top then worked down!

Edited by Nesty1760 on Sunday 6th October 14:01

[AB]

Had similar issues on our wooden gazebo, tried pressure washing from below then had the great idea of pressure washing it down from the top, worked quite well but still needed scrubbing and I nearly broke my neck.

[Cats_pyjamas]

You'll be able to get the worst of that off with a stiff broom. Wouldnt go to crazy though.

[Mercdriver]

I use a garden hoe, quite effective but I live in an extended bungalow with a dormer. Easy to get to the lower tiles from the ground and the higher up ones I can get on top of the dormer to clean the rest.

If you do clean the tiles make sure you put a plug into the gutter down pipe to stop it getting blocked.

I got a quote for a company to power wash it, they wanted £900 plus VAT, that was for one side!
It did include a chemical spray once clean that stopped the moss for two years, allegedly

[Monkeylegend]

Cats_pyjamas said:

You'll be able to get the worst of that off with a stiff broom. Wouldnt go to crazy though.

That's how I do mine.

[paulwirral]

Stiff brush , quick pressure wash from top down then a strip of copper on the very top of the ridge tiles to help stop it happening again .

[Cold]

Nesty1760 said:

OK, many thanks for the prompt responses appreciated.

I am not overall comfortable working at height, I don't have a tower. The moss never been taken off in my ownership 25 years, there's quite a bit.

I need to get the guttering done, but this needs to be done first, IE start at the top then worked down!

Edited by Nesty1760 on Sunday 6th October 14:01

I had the gutters/soffits/facias all done at mine around this time last year. I took advantage of the workmen's scaffolding to get up to the roof with some 'Wet and Forget' and a long stick over one weekend.

[TA14]

Mercdriver said:

I got a quote for a company to power wash it, they wanted £900 plus VAT, that was for one side!
It did include a chemical spray once clean that stopped the moss for two years, allegedly

So they'd like a grand a year per roof. Nice business model if they can get the work.

[Gas1883]

nuyorican said:

Could blast it off with a pressure washer perhaps?

This is what they did to a neighbours house prior to fitting solar panels to the roof

[ARHarh]

Or you could leave it like 90% of the other houses that still have functioning roof after 40 years of being covered in moss.

In 38 years of house ownership I have never removed moss, and probably cleaned gutters out every 5 years or so. Only had 2 gutters blocked twice in all that time. I think I have more important or even interesting things to worry about.

[megaphone]

Did a detached bungalow with a pressure washer, took all day and made a right mess, cleaned up well, tiles look like new. Needed some roof ladders to get up to the top.

Brushing won't get the moss out of the gaps in the tiles.

[FiF]

BAC50 is the answer. Never pressure wash, that just creates jobs for roofers.

If you can sympathetically do some manual removal of moss it will reduce the amount of chemical you will ultimately need.

[Chumley.mouse]

ARHarh said:

Or you could leave it like 90% of the other houses that still have functioning roof after 40 years of being covered in moss.

In 38 years of house ownership I have never removed moss, and probably cleaned gutters out every 5 years or so. Only had 2 gutters blocked twice in all that time. I think I have more important or even interesting things to worry about.

Maybe, But some people actually care about what their house looks like and don’t want a mess falling off the roof every time it rains heavy or the birds fancy pecking around in it all day.

Our house was like that that when we bought it but luckily its only a 15 degree pitch so easy to walk around on.

Id get a crawler get up there scrape/ brush it off , then some kind of moss killer to get the spores out of the joints as you go along.

Best time is in summer when its hot , it comes off easy when its bone dry.

[B'stard Child]

FiF said:

Never pressure wash, that just creates jobs for roofers.

See that comment and hear it a lot but I've yet to hear or read exactly why pressure washing a roof creates a problem??

Bulk of my roof is 40 plus years old - concrete tiles (Marley Mendips) so quite a heavy tile - it's been pressure washed twice in the 30 years we've been here.

1st time was just after we purchased it - I was constantly cleaning gutters out on the north facing side from the moss being removed every time it rained heavily so that would be mid 90's

2nd time was after we did an extension on the back of the house and garage that had a new roof fitted and the new roof stood out like a sore thumb. We already had scaffolding up for the roofers so it was nice and easy to clean the rest of the roof - that would be in 2008

It needs doing again really as the level of moss has built up in the last few years

[FiF]

B'stard Child said:

FiF said:

Never pressure wash, that just creates jobs for roofers.

See that comment and hear it a lot but I've yet to hear or read exactly why pressure washing a roof creates a problem??

Bulk of my roof is 40 plus years old - concrete tiles (Marley Mendips) so quite a heavy tile - it's been pressure washed twice in the 30 years we've been here.

1st time was just after we purchased it - I was constantly cleaning gutters out on the north facing side from the moss being removed every time it rained heavily so that would be mid 90's

2nd time was after we did an extension on the back of the house and garage that had a new roof fitted and the new roof stood out like a sore thumb. We already had scaffolding up for the roofers so it was nice and easy to clean the rest of the roof - that would be in 2008

It needs doing again really as the level of moss has built up in the last few years

The experience round here is that the usual suspects came round offering to do driveways etc and the few people who were persuaded to have roof done have all had to do repairs within 12 months.

The other thing is that pressure washing clears bulk but can drive spores into the tile matrix thus regrows. Biocide kills the bulk and the spores. Same goes for such as block paving.

I did my roof 10 years ago, still clean. Did a neighbours too with what chemical was left, also fine.