Just wondering about the best way to clean a roof that is covered in moss. I’ve just settled on a regional cottage near Warrnambool and it comes with 1 hectare of land and is surrounded in old cypress trees. The place can’t breathe and is covered in moss. Well , I’m getting an excavator to sort the trees out and then it’s clean up time..
I’m also thinking of buying a good pressure cleaner . Perhaps a Gerni or Karcher and motorised rather than electric. What do you think ? Is 2000 psi enough ? I seem to be hiring them a lot .
Some of the capping on the roof is loose and I,m scared of blowing water in… Any ideas ?
Shawn
Moss is not hard to remove, you can do it with a standard bristle scrub brush and push down (not up)the roof. You may not need a pressure cleaner. Is it green or black moss? It can be a very dangerous job as the moss can get very slippery when wet- use a safety harness!
We have a motorised pressure cleaner, can’t remember the price.
But because of water restrictions (check with your council) I think only companies are allowed to use these, not sure if you can just buy a pressure cleaner and start cleaning- perhaps it’s necessary to aks for an exemption first.Celivia
If you want to use a preasure cleaner, you can ask Sydney Water for an exemption for a period of time on a specified date. They will likely give you a 2 hour window in which to do the work.
We did it about 12 months ago.Mal
Getting out of your comfort zone, can help you become comfortable
Hey pursefattener,
Last time I did the roof, I hired a pressure cleaner from from Kennards for the day. Gurney type and did a great job. If you blow the water downstream you shouldn’t have too many problems although you can loose a bit of the cement around the capping.
Celivia, couldn’t think of anything worse than using a scrubbing brush up on the roof, would take an age. Good comments about the harness though.
Thanks Celivia You are right it is very slippery and dangerous when wet and its green moss too.
I tried spraying a small section of the roof with roundup to kill the moss first but it didn’t kill it and in fact I think it is growing better than it was…
Water is not a problem here
I like using pressure cleaners as I can see quick results for my efforts, A satisfaction thing. Not like painting. I could never be a painter…Urggg.
What sort of pressure cleaner do you have ?
Shawn
Shawn,
I’ve used a Gerni before to clean a black tiled roof.
Cost $ 95 to hire for the day.
Nozzle pressure was 1,500 psi.
Best results were had with the nozzle held about 2 or 3 inches above the tile.Wasn’t aware councils had problems with the water used. Volume used wasn’t that much.
Straddling 3 or 4 tile rows with your feet (wearing steel capped boots just in case you swipe your foot…which I did twice) gave both good purchase and stability, but also time for the water to dry a bit before you came back for the next run.
Didn’t use a harness, but then there was nothing to anchor it to up there. Needed a big brick chimney or something, but only spindly little breather pipes which would of snapped off and fell on my head if I went south in a hurry.
Did use big pair of goggles to protect eyes, there is little bits of grit and vegetation flying everywhere. As Jan mentioned, be gentle with the capping and cement. It’s designed to keep out gentle rain, not 1,500 psi applied at 2 inches.
At the end of the job found out the roof was actually coloured green, not black. Thankfully the outside paint job hadn’t started, but we had to modify colour schemes thereafter.
Cheers,
Darryl Moore
“No point having a cake if you can’t eat it.”
Thanks for the tips everyone. Just got up on the roof to clean the gutters and noticed that after 10 years the tiles are anything but their original colour. So it’s off to get a gurney for the day on Friday. Cheers
What about that stuff you paint on and it removes moss over a few weeks ? Anyone used that with success? Forget what it’s called.
Cheers
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Never heard of the stuff that you paint on. I have just finished doing basically what Darryl did. Hired a 1500 psi electric gurney from Coates Hire – $80 per day or weekend. The unit was too big to take on the roof but it could sit on the ground so long as you have about 20 metres of pressure hose to work with. Took about five to six hours to do the entire roof ensuring that you hose downwards away from the overlap and capping. I’m in Perth with some water restrictions but the unit did not appear to use an excessive amount of water. Make sure you clean the gutters first and they will need a light flushing afterwards. Did it on a perfect day, mostly cloudy with occasional sunshine, about 22* and the tiles were drying out behind me after about half an hour.
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