Moss cleaning - pitched roof (myself)

Zimchenko

I have heavy moss on my roof, so I'd like to get rid.

I've done a bit of reaerch and I'm really put off any kind of pressure washing but I'm still being quoted £800-1000 for a 'soft wash' - essentially spraying the roof with something that will kill the moss and leave it to drop off.

I wonder if anyone has any experience of doing this themselves? I have flat roof extensions to the front and back, so reasonably safe access to gutter level on the pitched roof. Feels like there should be something I can spray from there. Any tips welcome - thanks in advance.

tonyh66

you could spray patio moss cleaner onto the roof, there is also a raw chemical you can use copper sulphate or something, someone with more knowledge will be along in a minute.

dontmess666

Wow, £1000 to spray a roof!!
Buy yourself Patio Magic, around £8 and a garden pressure spray, around £10. Get on a ladder or through a roof window if you have one and give it a spray. Then sit back and relax as the moss drops down, remembering to clear your gutters.
If you want long term solution, stick down copper strips to your roof ridges.

SuperHung

I have the same issue. People said leave it as it might cause more harm than good to remove it.

Grenage

It doesn't do any harm, although companies selling solutions will spout the horrors of moss destroying rooves.  Of it soaking up water, freezing, and splitting your house in twain.

I leave it to the magpies.

FreeBear

tonyh66 said:  you can use copper sulphate or something

Please, not copper sulphate - It does a lot of environmental damage once in the local water course and you don't want the stuff getting into the underground aquifer.

bris

You can buy a long extension pole and attach a scraper to it. No need for chemical and waiting  for it to fall of. it tends to just turn black and stay there though so it might not even fall off. 
Hard removal is the best way.

Zimchenko

Thanks for your replies. Don't trust myself with a scraper but will look into spraying moss-killing products. Maybe a poweful super soaker will let me do it from ground level even! 

OilyByker

pay the money, get it done. Moss Killer takes ages, then you pay someone to clean your gutters. 
I power washed over 1000 roofs, 20 years ago when I was young enough and daft enough to climb on roofs, nothin better for cleaning moss off. Treat afterwards. Treatment will not stop moss growing on the sap off trees. It will return.... eventually but yearly treatment helps. £5-600 is a lot, but scraping is like cuttin your lawn..... ci

fenwick458

My method will be like this and I think this is what I'm going to do this summer on mine. I'd wait till the middle of summer when it's at it's blackest and dryest, and then attack it with a floor scraper, carefully. I'd even go as far as sharpening the scraper on a bench grinder to cut the moss off with as little disturbance to the tiles as possible
once the bulk of it has been removed, sweep it all off with a brush.
and then spray the whole roof with a hypochlorite/water solution to kill off the rest of it. or as much as possible.
I'm aware it'll just grow back, but that will be many years down the line and It'll probably need a new roof in 10 years anyway.
I've seen what happens to old concrete tiled roofs when people just go up and pressure wash it all off, they take off the top layer of the tiles and crack loads of tiles and probably do more harm that good

TELLIT01

fenwick458 said:

My method will be like this and I think this is what I'm going to do this summer on mine. I'd wait till the middle of summer when it's at it's blackest and dryest, and then attack it with a floor scraper, carefully. I'd even go as far as sharpening the scraper on a bench grinder to cut the moss off with as little disturbance to the tiles as possible
once the bulk of it has been removed, sweep it all off with a brush.
and then spray the whole roof with a hypochlorite/water solution to kill off the rest of it. or as much as possible.
I'm aware it'll just grow back, but that will be many years down the line and It'll probably need a new roof in 10 years anyway.
I've seen what happens to old concrete tiled roofs when people just go up and pressure wash it all off, they take off the top layer of the tiles and crack loads of tiles and probably do more harm that good

Are you saying you climb on the roof and do it by hand with a scraper?!  Sounds a tad risky to me.  Not too bad if you live in a bungalow but I wouldn't want to do that on my house where the ridge is best part of 30 feet up.