Be Careful With That Roof!

Nature damages roofs, and so do people! Please read on and save yourself roof trouble. Conversely, your roof can damage you, too!

If it doesn’t work, it can rack up huge costs in interior repairs and replacements. Also, if you or anyone falls off your roof, it can be an incredible pain–physically and financially.

There are three main things that damage roofs. Nature, workers, and tools.

Nature damages roofs through high winds, excessive heat and UV rays, hail, little critters, and nature’s simplest, ongoing decomposition methods–-moss, mold, mildew, algae and fungus.

You’ve probably seen the catastrophic nature events in the media. Shingles ripped off roofs leaving bare wood, hail that dents cars and destroys roofing materials.

Most people don’t really expect roof damage to come from racoons and rats that tear through the products, but many of my customers and friends experience this, sometimes at great cost in terms of repairs outside and inside. Even birds do damage to some extent.

Then, in rainforest and temperate climates, nature’s relentless decomposers are multiplying, spreading and growing. Moss, mold, mildew, fungus and algae. They have a good purpose in nature, getting rid of dead organic material. But they do damage to the structures that protect everything you own and your loved ones.

I spoke of roof workers. Do-it-yourself homeowners and many contractors, while servicing homes, do damage to roofing. For example, many homes are designed with windows above roofing. When it’s exterior window cleaning time, the washer will most likely be walking on the roof. This is causes wear-and-tear to a greater degree than you may have thought.

Before touching on other workers and the tasks they do, it’s important for owners to understand the roofing material on their home. Every kind of roof material, except maybe recycled rubber, are damaged by roof traffic.

Asphalt roofing is by far the most common product used, so let’s use this as an example. Shingles are basically made of bitumen, a heavy oil. It’s very waterproof and quite flexible. Most shingles today have fibreglass mats inside the bitumen and are made of two pieces of the bitumen laminated together, giving strength and beauty. They are coated with granulation – either sand or ceramic particles the size of grains of sand.

The granulation does more than give a wonderful array of colours and accents. Vastly important, the surface they create protects the bitumen mat from the UV rays of the sun. Without them, the bitumen will bake, dry out, curl and split – becoming useless to protect your home. That’s re-roof time, and it’s not cheap! The fact is, UV rays are getting stronger lately.

Granulation is your main hope of having long lasting roofing, combined with the thickness of the shingle. The hotter the weather, the more damage is being done by walking on the granulation. The heat melts the bitumen.

Surprisingly, most re-roofing is done in the summer, and yes, the roofing is
being damaged even during the installation on hot days. The hotter the weather, the more the damage. The granulation is easily sloughed off the sloped surface by any kind of shoe. Think of walking on a sandy surface on a 20-degree sloped sidewalk. Some slipping cannot be avoided in any weather. But granulation is also being pressed in to the bitumen,
disappearing there, so that there is less colour. Less colour is a sign of less protection for your roof.

Gutter cleaners often walk along the roof just above the gutter. In my career doing roofing and roof maintenance, I’ve seen many dark trails where the granulation has been worn away. Anyone working on roofs will choose the easiest and safest paths, and you can clearly see these paths – swaths of wear and tear.

To some extent, roofs in heavily treed areas that have bits of branches and leafy debris do need to be cleaned, but this also creates wear and tear. See about the tools that do the most damage just a bit further down in this article. Leaf blowers are the safest way to go – and be sure proper safety gear is worn and a safety plan is done.

Think also of Christmas light installations and decorations of all kinds. They are fun, but your roof is expensive, important and delicate. Most importantly, we must discuss roof moss removal workers. That’s my specialty and I’ve spent a lot of my life studying, experimenting, creating and testing to find the right way to do this. I made my breakthrough discovery decades ago, and after many trials, and started using it professionally over 20 years ago.

I hope you realize that roof moss removal is an easy service to start doing. It looks easy, and people who are ok with a bit of danger and need a job are attracted to it. People who don’t like to be watched up close are also attracted. Funnily, many criminals, when asked about their career, will say “roofing”. That’s not a good sign. But roof work is an important
profession. There is high quality roofing education and a standard administrator in BC, the Roofing Contractors Association and Training Center.

Tools that damage roofs other than shoes are safety ropes and improper installations of roof anchors; hoses of any sort dragging around the roofing, (pressure washing hoses being many times worse than garden hoses); brooms, brushes and scrapers. Scrapers!?

It’s important to re-emphasize that roofs damage people, too. Countless numbers of homeowners and workers have died or had serious, life altering injuries while working on roofs. Ladder climbing and roof walking are serious threats to health and well being. If you plan to allow anyone to work on your roof, ensure they are properly covered by Worksafe BC and
follow the many rules they’ve laid down–to save life and limb.

ROTban Ultra Cleaning Corp has paid the price in study, system development, solution development and creating a long-term history–20+ years of well documented success. You really will be better off by involving us in your roof moss removal or roof stain cleaning investigation.

Please allow us to give you an informative and timely quote, and if all is well with that, maybe we can have a long relationship resulting in clean, beautiful roofing that lasts.

You’ll find a lot of information on this website and in our quotes about how we accomplish gentle, damage free, long-lasting roof moss removal that restores beauty and saves roof life, all of which improves your economy and general well being. A free, no-obligation quote request form is right at hand here, and it will be thorough, honest and at the very least, helpful.

Since 1998, ROTbanTM Ultra Cleaning Corp has been removing moss, algae, and stains from roofs, building exteriors, and landscape structures for commercial and residential customers. ROTbanTM operates throughout the Lower Mainland from West Vancouver to Hope.

If you have any questions about this article or would to schedule an appointment with us, please call (604) 761-5640 or email us at info@rotban.ca.