Moss cleaning - pitched roof (myself)

twopenny

There are a couple of guys near us who climb up on roofs and clear the moss manually. They are practised in this and make a great job. I'm guessing it's not cheap but the job is good and instant. Price would depend on the height of the house and acerage of roof.

I haven't checked a few years on how long this lasts but as good as anything else I'd think.

Grizzlebeard

A pressure wash from the wrong angle can force it's way under the tiles and do more damage than good, especially on older houses where roofing felt is brittle or broken. Scraped most of the moss from my main roof (mid summer when crispy dry), purely to keep gutters clear longer. Just the loose stuff. (I prefer the established look of an old house weathered into it's rural setting)

But after scraping the thick moss of an extension (all this was 35 years ago) driving rain from the north would stream into my kitchen annex (half a bucket an hour) where I'd never had even a hint of dampness before. I had to divert a down pipe from main roof gutter which spilled on to this. (Also it was more work than expected to lift and replace the felt and most of the battens and replace ceiling below.)

fenwick458

TELLIT01 said:

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.

yeah, using a floor scraper which has a long (6ft) handle so not soo much moving around

Martin_the_Unjust

Grenage said:

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.

….. is the right answer, the rest is just ‘magic beans’

greyteam1959

Just leave it alone.

gamston

i cleared my roof by hand/wire brush a few years ago (its a tall bungalow roof) didn't put any treatment on it, moss is coming back now

TELLIT01

fenwick458 said:

TELLIT01 said:

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.

yeah, using a floor scraper which has a long (6ft) handle so not soo much moving around

You're a braver man than me.  I'll leave the moss where it is.