Cleaning the roof not only helps your roof look its best, but may extend the life of your shingles. While professional roof cleaners do a great job, you may want to learn how to clean the roof yourself (and save a bit of money). With our tips, you can clean the roof safely.
Get the Right Supplies
We never recommend that you go up on your roof without a harness. One slip off the roof could be deadly, especially when surfaces are wet due to cleaning. Cleaning pros have a safety harness available and you should, too. You will also need a ladder to get out onto the roof.
Other supplies you will want to have before you clean your roof:
- garden sprayer
- garden hose
- roof cleaner
We strongly encourage you to select a roof cleaner that is nontoxic. The chemical will drip off the roof and onto your plants and your lawn, so protecting the environment makes sense.
Wait for Good Weather
The best weather to clean a roof is clear with good visibility, low wind, and cool temperatures. When you try to clean the roof on a windy day, the chemicals and hose spray will blow back at you, complicating the process of cleaning the roof. The ideal conditions we’ve described not only make your job easier, they allow the cleaning solution to soak into roof algae and debris, rather than evaporate in the heat and sunshine.
Soak Shingles the Right Way
Before you apply cleaner to your roof, soak it with water from the hose. Blasting the roof with water cools off the shingles, which helps the chemicals soak in.
Once you’ve got the right chemical solution, start at the low end of the roof and saturate the shingles. Spray the shingles until you see the cleaning solution running off; this illustrates that the area is saturated. Then move up the roof, working from the edge to the peak. If you notice that an area of the roof has dried out, resaturate it.
Rinse off the cleaner to finish the job. A special rinsing tool blasts off corroded materials so your roof looks good as new post-cleaning.
If this sounds like a lot of work, roofing professionals can give the roof a thorough cleaning for you.
To get a quote for roof cleaning, roof work, or roof repair, please contact us today.
