Some roof cleaning pics

[RyanH 14]

Here are of the few before / after pics I've taken recently....some are older scans from a 35mm some are new with the digi cam. In all of these cases, I just cleaned with 6% bleach applied with a shurflo pump at 60 psi. You can see from two of the pics the distance and spray pattern I use. One of the roofs looks like the shingles are curling....I guess that's what 40 year old shingles do in the southern sun! At any rate, they were like that *before* I got to them.

[RyanH 14]

more pics.

[Celeste 341]

Wow - what a difference! Very nice work -

Celeste

[RyanH 14]

A few more pics

[RyanH 14]

Thanks Celeste. That house with the white roof was a bear!! I was a little dissappointed because some of the rust stains and metallic deposits remained, but the owner was absolutely thrilled at the difference when the black algae was "gone."

[seymore 90]

That's a big diff. Ryan great job!

I know what you mean about not getting the rust stains out it would bug me too.When you get a job that dirty and get it cleaned 99% that 1% bothers me that it wasn't perfect.

Now if the homeowner is happy that's :cool:

[Brian 14]

Ryan,

Looks great. Where do you anchor your safety lines?

[K.J. Pressure Washing 14]

Looks Great Ryan!:D

[RyanH 14]

In the case of the house with multiple roof lines I anchored to trees on either side of the house. My rope is 300', so I had plenty to span the distance. On the white roof, the pitch was so small that I wasn't worried about using a line.

Sometime in the next week or two I will be [trying] to get to a barn-style garage near my house...the broad side of it looks to be angled at around 75 - 80 degrees. It has some pretty bad moss on one side, but I'm doing it mainly to see how well my harness setup works. I'll get my wife to snap a few pics of this as well. I'll also be using trees for this setup.

Ryan

[Brian 14]

Thanks for the info Ryan.

[Celeste 341]

Soooo, whatcha using to clean with - or is it a "proprietary secret" :)

Celeste

[RyanH 14]

Just check out the thread-starter.....6% bleach. More specifically, Clorox because I was able to get it from Sams for a decent price. It would be more convenient to order it in larger quantities, but the frequency with which I do roofs is not great enough to warrant buying in large quantities. Still, it works great.

[Celeste 341]

Just check out the thread-starter.....6% bleach. More specifically, Clorox because I was able to get it from Sams for a decent price. It would be more convenient to order it in larger quantities, but the frequency with which I do roofs is not great enough to warrant buying in large quantities. Still, it works great.

Silly Me! I was so busy being impressed by your photos that I didn't read the wordy stuff :)

Celeste

[EmpirePW 14]

In all of these cases, I just cleaned with 6% bleach applied with a shurflo pump at 60 psi. You can see from two of the pics the distance and spray pattern I use.

I don't have a shurflo pump and have never used one. Is it anything like my x-jet that injects the chemicals into a water spray or is it just like a really good pump up garden sprayer that just applies chemicals? what is the process you use for cleaning roofs? Do you just apply bleach and let dwell then rinse or do you downstream chemicals into your water and just keep wet? I'm going to research roof cleaning now, I think there would be a big market in my area for it.

[RyanH 14]

The ShurFlo is designed to just pump liquid from one place to another. It's very robust and can handle a very wide range of materials (no flammables, though). My setup is basically the pump, a battery, 100' of hose, a bucket for source chemical, and my "gun," which is just an extension wand used for garden sprayers.

There is no pressure washer involved, it is essentially noiseless and doesn't make any mess unless you have a leak.

The roofs around me are just plagued with the algae, so regular 6% bleach works very well...no other additives are needed. Things may be different in different areas or circumstances. I just spray on liberally to make sure I get a nice even coverage and get in a pattern so that I can be consistent. I think prewetting the roof really helps as you will use less bleach, but on a hot day a one-man-op is a little difficult and messy to handle. It really does work just like a pump up sprayer in the amount and pressure it puts out chemicals, but is entirely automated, so the only thing you have to carry around is your wand and whatever hose trails. Basically, I start at the top and work my way down in 4 - 5 foot wide sections from one side of the roof to the other. For show, I like to clean half of the front side of the roof, then work on the sides and back, then finish the front....mainly so it will be exposed as long as possible for passersby to see and think "wow." I definitely think that roof cleaning makes the most dramatic impact in before/after comparison (on really bad roofs). Following that, I think a nice trim/gutter cleaning followed by a siding rinse.

[CLASSICPW 14]

I've never washed a roof, but there is a huge demand in my area. I was just about to research it when I read your thread, thanks. Now, how do you rinse? What about cedar shingles, there's alot of moss infested cedar roofs here.

[RyanH 14]

Now, how do you rinse? What about cedar shingles, there's alot of moss infested cedar roofs here.

I let Mother Nature rinse it for me with a good rain. Even on a sunny day the water from the bleach will evaporate long before I could ever get to it to rinse it and there is really no chance of the solid salts harming the shingles. Now, if it were in a drought season and there was no rain in the forcast for the next several weeks, or it has been a particularly dry season, I'll rinse it. Then it's just hooking up the PW and putting on the Xjet so I can get a good flow and rinsing with plain cold water.

No cedar shingles around here, so I couldn't answer that one. There are many past posts here, however, regarding the cleaning of cedar shingles and you will see many opinions on methods and chems to use. I think someone mentioned awhile back that if the algae growth is severe it is a sign that it has rooted itself in the wood and cleaning it off may actually open it up for even greater premature wear.

[randyh56 14]

Just curious, but everything I have read concerning roof cleaning chemicals of which there are many is that bleach is absolutely the wrong one to use. However this is the same type of application I am trying to put together on the equipment side. What size hose do you have and where can you get a wand for it. I did see where one guy cleaned roofs with pool chlorine. That was also new to me of course all of this is. I just want to get the best possible cleaner that is safe for the plants and all concerned. Any info would be appreciated.

randyh56@hotmail.com Randy

[EmpirePW 14]

Just curious, but everything I have read concerning roof cleaning chemicals of which there are many is that bleach is absolutely the wrong one to use. However this is the same type of application I am trying to put together on the equipment side. What size hose do you have and where can you get a wand for it. I did see where one guy cleaned roofs with pool chlorine. That was also new to me of course all of this is. I just want to get the best possible cleaner that is safe for the plants and all concerned. Any info would be appreciated.

People use pool chlorine because of the bleach in it. Bleach is not neccesarily bad for the surrounding plants if you make sure to throughly wet them down as well as all surrounding areas. I haven't done any roofs yet but I use bleach when cleaning siding and have never had a problem with plants as long as they are wetted down and I also rinse them off when I am finished also.

[randyh56 14]

Thanks for your response. Do you use straight bleach or dilute it down. Everybody seems to have different opinons on this. Some say the bleach will ruin the gutters and mess up the shingles over time. I just want to use something that works good.

Nice-n-Clean Exterior Cleaning Service randyh56@hotmail.com

Any info on chemicals and processes is appreciated. Thanks, Randy

[EmpirePW 14]

Thanks for your response. Do you use straight bleach or dilute it down. Everybody seems to have different opinons on this. Some say the bleach will ruin the gutters and mess up the shingles over time. I just want to use something that works good.

I guess that would depend on what strength bleach you are using. RyanH said he uses 6% bleach. The bleach I buy is 12% so I would have to dilute it. If you used household bleach which I believe is in the 2-3% range, it may not be strong enough.

[John Orr 206]

Ryan,

FYI, I use oxalic acid on the rust stains on the roof and it gets most it off.

John

[RyanH 14]

John,

thanks for that tip. Actually, a local washer called me yesterday and told me of a problem he encountered.....for some reason the water supply at the house he was washing had an EXTREMELY high amount of iron in the water....when he went to rinse a side of the house it turned the white vinyl bright orange. He tried strong bleach and caustic and had no results. After a few moments of panic, he put some thought into what rust was, put oxalic on it ,scrubbed a little, and it came off beautifully. Next time I encounter rust on a roof, I'll try this.

Thanks,

Ryan

[John Orr 206]

I've had walls turn rusty and have found that for vinyl, downstreaming oxalic works well. Don't forget to rinse!

[randyh56 14]

In the case of cleaning the steep roofs I have seen several methods. The one Ryan uses with the repeling equipment and also where the solution is sprayed on and left for the rain to wash it off over a period of time. Is anybody familar with the latter and the application process. I thought I had seen where they used an x-jet for this. But how do you not put the solution under the shingles unless you change the angle of application. I would appreciate any thoughts on this. Some said to avoid the steep roofs altogether. There sure are a bunch of them here to do if possible. I have never done repeling only climbing a tree with a portable tree stand for deer hunting.

[Tronman 14]

Ryan H,

Are these pics taken after applied chem with a shuflo? - No direct 45 degree spraying, etc.