Roof Cleaning Adelaide

the safe way to clean your roof

Why Clean Your Roof?

Your roof is most expensive and most important part of your property –it’s also the part that’s most exposed to the elements. Correctly cleaning and treating your roof against the elements and organic growth can extend the life while ensuring that your property continues to look it’s best.

Even in our dry Adelaide climate organic growth is the main issue you will run into when maintaining your roof. Fungus – the familiar dark streaks you will see on roofs is where the problem starts – making way for more sinister growth such as unsightly moss and lichens.

Lichen is often deep rooted into the roofing material and can damage roof coatings, block the water run-off from roof tiles or make their way into the gutters. It’s very common for lichen growth to sit dormant for a few years then suddenly explode as the surrounding roof conditions make the perfect environment for the growth to flourish.

Moss and algae are more common in areas such as the Adelaide Hills – moss in particular can be a real problem as the growth retains water and can really add to the pressure on an already delicate roof.

A dirty overgrown roof is a maintenance nightmare waiting to happen and depending on how visible your roof is can also be a real eyesore and detractor from your property value.

Traditionally we have left our roofs to deteriorate then eventually shell out big dollars for replacement or restoration. At Fresh Front we saw a real need for a safe, effective and gentle way to clean and treat your roof avoiding a costly restoration. Having your roof cleaned and treated correctly can save you thousands of dollars down the track.

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Pressure Washing is Not a Safe Form of Roof Cleaning

Unless a full roof restoration is planned we do not recommend the use of high pressure for any maintenance roof cleaning. Pressure cleaning of roofs can present a number of problems. There is an increased chance of water penetration under tiles due to the high pressure and water volume used which may create costly damage to your home. Pressure cleaning requires the operator to walk the entire roof, not only is this unsafe but the chance of collateral damage from walking the roof or dragging hoses over tiles and ridge caps is high. Excess pressure will strip paint coatings from concrete tiles and leave “wanding” marks in oxidized colourbond sheeting – the end result may look faded or striped.

Pressure cleaning of roofs is an extremely messy process, not only for you but often your neighbours as debris, tile paint and dirt is blasted in all directions. The growth will also likely return quickly as the spores are simply moved around rather than killed

Adelaide's Soft Washing Experts

Soft washing is our low pressure cleaning process. It completely avoids the risks of damage associated with high pressure water blasting.

A soap mixture is specially formulated for the job at hand and applied to the roof using low pressure spray equipment. Much of the roof structure can be cleaned from the ground or from a ladder minimizing the need to walk the entire roof and reducing the risk of damage.

Clinging agents in the soap mix to ensures the soaps stay “in the zone” to do their work with minimal over spray or run off. Bacteria and organic matter that causes unsightly stains and growth is killed in it’s tracks. Strong lichen growth is immediately weakened, allowing easy removal by a low pressure rinse. A final rinse at low pressure completes the job, removing the now dead bacteria and leaving a perfectly clean roof.

The soft wash process offers a great long term result as the unsightly growth is killed off – traditional pressure cleaning activities simply move the spores around and more often than not the growth returns very quickly and often in a more unsightly manner.

Is Soft Washing/Roof Cleaning Safe?

In order to get the best results some chemical products will always need to be used – thankfully when we soft wash your roof only biodegradable products are used and we take a number of precautions to ensure your gardens and our environment are kept safe.

We employ a strict regime of pre – during and post rinsing while applying any soaps to your roof. Rinsing and dilution removes any risk presented by overspray of the soap mix, in some cases we may also tarp off specific plants as an added layer of protection during cleaning activities.

If present, rain water tanks are disconnected and diverted to a suitable place temporarily. The products are safe to use around animals as well although we recommend pets be kept away during cleaning to avoid bringing any residue inside which may stain carpets etc.

Cleaning Terracotta Tiles

Adelaide’s terracotta tiled roofs are a magnet for lichen growth. It’s rare to find one that hasn’t been overgrown by unsightly green growth.

Pressure cleaning might seem like the obvious choice but these roofs are often extremely delicate and tiles can crack when walked on — in addition to that pressure cleaning alone will not treat the root cause of the growth seeing it return quickly.

Pressure cleaning your tiled roof might see some collateral damage to roof pointing and generally requires repair work thereafter to patch things up. This is not a major problem if you plan to undertake an expensive restoration but not ideal for a simple maintenance clean.

We have developed a gentle low pressure process to treat these delicate roofs. Long acting anti-fungal agents are applied at very low pressure, sprayed from the gutter line with minimal walking of the roof. These slowly kill off fungal growth and cause stubborn lichens to decompose, become powdery and gently fall off the roof by action of wind and rain. The product used is a mild anti-fungal agent which is totally safe around your family and pets.

The process takes up to 12 months before you see results and won’t get any worse in the mean time. The result is a clean roof, treated from organics without damaging high pressure blasting and costly repairs. Once treated roofs will stay clean for several years and may only require a light touch up application in the event of any return of growth in years to come.

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