removing moss from roof

Brie

No need for our place but the newbies across the road have someone on their roof scraping the slates (tiles? whatever)

I figure a good layer of moss is extra insulation.  OH thinks it looks nice.  So why do people have it removed?  

IvyFlood

We've got loads of it on our roof, don't think its been touched since the house was built in the mid 60s! We've had quotes to remove it but personally I don't want to disturb it. The only thing I'll say is that when it rains, we find a lot of it on the ground and I guess it probably blocks the gutters too.

We also have a lower part of roof which we remove it from as we can reach that ourselves.

TELLIT01

Moss removal seems to be the latest fad. 

Section62

Brie said:

No need for our place but the newbies across the road have someone on their roof scraping the slates (tiles? whatever)

I figure a good layer of moss is extra insulation.  OH thinks it looks nice.  So why do people have it removed?  

Two words - "colonic irrigation".

(this isn't health advice)

CliveOfIndia

TELLIT01 said:

Moss removal seems to be the latest fad. 

And an unnecessary one at that.  About the only slight nuisance it may cause is that it could fall into the gutters and cause a blockage, but even that's no big deal to sort out.  But despite the dire warnings these roof-cleaning companies will spout, it's going to cause no harm whatsoever to the roof.

The OP refers to them scraping it off - at least that's a bit better than attacking it with a pressure washer, which I've seen some cowboys doing.

But to my mind it's a totally unnecessary fad.  I personally think it looks nice, and on my house the birds do a good job of getting rid of most of it when they're rummaging around for insects in it.  It falls on to the path underneath, takes me all of 30 seconds to sweep it up occasionally.

And if you do get it removed, it'll grow back pretty sharpish.  Totally pointless in my view.

[Deleted User]

The birds toss clumps of moss from the roof and make quite a mess at the back and the front of the house.  When the gutters were cleaned the workman said they were in a mess and blocked solid with moss.

I had water coming in through my porch ceiling and the Council cleared my gutters.

I asked about it but was told that it was not 'policy' (Council property) to remove roof moss.  It is as bad as ever and, as well as the unsightly mess (I try to clear it away almost every other day) it is getting worse.

Devongardener

The moss on our roof was noted as a fault by the surveyor who did the survey for our buyer last year, even though most houses around us had far more.    We have always removed it every few years (bungalow with shallow pitched roof so relatively safe and easy).    The main problem with it is that if left it gets washed into gutters and has blocked down pipes and the soak away, leading to damp problems.   

digannio

I recently had some roofing work done by a couple of experienced roofers and they told me how they'd seen some cleaning so vigorously that there were bits of tile and masonry flying off in all directions along with the moss.  Wouldn't want them clumping about on my roof in their size nines. You might end up causing other problems that weren't there to start with.

twopenny

Well you can have a good laugh when their moss grows back next year 

Since we started to insulate our lofts to within an inch of their lives I've noticed it's made ideall conditions for moss and llichen to grow but even with my old rosemary tiles 90yrs old it didn't cause any harm.

I too wait for the birds to do their job. Some goes in the gutter but often they chuck that out too. Nothing a quick  grab and chuck can't handle. Goes on the compost heap.

ss2020jd

I couldn’t fully understand the issues and obsession with removal but it was picked up in my survey on a lower level rear part of the house as needing to be removed due to the fact that it could freeze and expand causing cracking and deterioration of the clay tiles. But in our case we’re talking about a complete several inches thick carpet where most of the tiles were not even visible and the roof tile curves were covered flat so water not flowing into gutters. Probably the only thing stopping the water coming in is the moss. I don’t think the previous owners ever removed it. 

The surveyor said that on removal of the moss (by hand soft brush only) if more than a third of the thickness of the tile was cracked or had come away the tile should be replaced. We thought it may do more harm than good to remove it so left it for about 18 months with my husband just checking and clearing out the gutters regularly, helped by the birds. Following the couple of freezes we had unfortunately quite a lot of the tiles have flaked and started disintegrating so we don’t have much choice but to remove it and replace any tiles at this stage. As others have said, it will grow back so does seem pointless in a way but in our case the tiles are in a bad way underneath so it’s time to deal with the worst of it. 

FreeBear

Devongardener said: The main problem with it is that if left it gets washed into gutters and has blocked down pipes and the soak away, leading to damp problems.   

Fitting a Floplast interceptor gully is well worth doing. It traps a lot of the crud that would end up in a soakaway. Doesn't help with a blocked gutter or downpipe though.