Roof cleaning and ruined plants

Jake'sGran

Right now my next door neighbour (attached) is having his roof cleaned. Who started this ridiculous scheme?. We have lived in this house for 40 years and any moss on the roof is no detriment to it. Our drive is now covered in muck and the plants and baskets at the front of the house will need to hosed to clean it off all the leaves thus making them sodden. The 8ft very expensive window is dripping with water. The neighbour's van is on our drive (also covered in black muck) and our car is at the other end of the cul -de-sac. So you will understand that we are accommmodating people. Sorry about the rant but I can't believe we how much people take advantage of others these days.

katiel

I've never heard of roof cleaning. What's it meant to achieve? I think if someone attacked our roof with a high pressure hose (I guess that's what they're using?) most of the tiles would fall off.

Jake'sGran

You are lucky never to have heard of it.
In this area we seem to have a lot of people who want loft extensions, roof cleaning (and fancy grey plastic edging), block paving, cheap plastic downspouts that won't hold the water when it is raining hard. The men are just leaving after doing the roof. Our houses have sharp angled roofs and are therefore larger than average.

They do use power washers and then a fungicide is applied and, then, a sealant is applied.One lady told us today that when her neighbour's roof was done with the fungicide it ran off the roof into her water butt. When she used the water all her plants died.

We just want a quiet life and these days hate having jobs done.

Davesnave

It sounds like another scam, where people are told they 'need' something that we always managed fine without, or they are daft enough to want it because it is 'better.'

I wonder what these men would do without therir pressure washers. Get up there with a bucket and a broom? :rolleyes:

Sure, mossy roofs mean the birds dislodge a few bits as they search for insects, but on my personal annoyance scale it hardly registers. Like most people, I've real stuff to bother about!

Stompa

Jake'sGran wrote: »

Right now my next door neighbour (attached) is having his roof cleaned.

It's bizarre isn't it. Despite the fact that our house is only about 15 years old, we've got a couple of neighbours who've had it done. There roofs (or is that rooves?) now look very patchy, presumably where some areas were cleaned more forcefully than others.

colt

The other thing is if they use a waterproof sealant to seal the tiles they are locking in any moister in the tiles. This will become a problem in the winter when the temp freezes and the tiles explode cos the frozen water as nowhere to go. I used to work on brick n stone and the times we had to repair them due to a waterproof sealant being applied. All stone, bricks and tiles are made so that they breathe so why would you want to seal them?

amcluesent

Modern day version of tinkers offering to tarmac the drive. The old 'cement your ridge tiles' scam is still good for bringing in the ££

Jake'sGran

Davesnave wrote: »

It sounds like another scam, where people are told they 'need' something that we always managed fine without, or they are daft enough to want it because it is 'better.'

I wonder what these men would do without therir pressure washers. Get up there with a bucket and a broom? :rolleyes:

Sure, mossy roofs mean the birds dislodge a few bits as they search for insects, but on my personal annoyance scale it hardly registers. Like most people, I've real stuff to bother about!

This is interesting as a lady at the back of us had her roof done by hand. I remember thinking it was a labour intensive job but it did look clean afterwards and she had nothing else applied.

Jake'sGran

colt wrote: »

The other thing is if they use a waterproof sealant to seal the tiles they are locking in any moister in the tiles. This will become a problem in the winter when the temp freezes and the tiles explode cos the frozen water as nowhere to go. I used to work on brick n stone and the times we had to repair them due to a waterproof sealant being applied. All stone, bricks and tiles are made so that they breathe so why would you want to seal them?

The neighbour concerned did tell my OH this morning that he will not be having the sealant. My OH had gone to apologise for losing his rag with the man's ex wife who persuades the neighbour to have all sorts done. He is 85 and single handedly looking after a severely handicapped 36 yr old daughter. We think the ex wife has an ulterior motive.

Davesnave

Jake'sGran wrote: »

This is interesting as a lady at the back of us had her roof done by hand. I remember thinking it was a labour intensive job but it did look clean afterwards and she had nothing else applied.

Oh yes, perfectly possible, but I meant would the men want to? With just a brush, they'd need to be on the roof much longer and work three times as hard. Not a great job; hard on arms and knees.

Personally I don't think sealant would do harm as the tiles would only be covered on one face, but it would be totally useless and just a cosmetic job.

Those people should take a trip to somewhere like Broadway in the Cotswolds and, while they're there, ask why the owners of those £1m listed properties don't have their stone roofs sealed!

Valli

roof cleaning? what a waste of money!