You got a Roof Cleaning letter from your Tampa HOA.
Your roof is dirty, you can see black stains,or maybe some other type of fungus. Now the question is “how do I go about cleaning it?”
You are not alone being Deed Restricted in Tampa, Florida.
In fact I’m sure that you have noticed the same problem on other roofs in your Tampa area neighborhood. If you have done any research you will have noticed that the problem is not just in the Tampa Florida area.
What is it on your roof? The black stains that you see is a form of black algae called glaeocospca magma.
it is a living plant, feeding off of the nutrients in your roof. It generally can only survive on the north facing roofs or on heavily shaded sections of your roof, that is because the ultra violet rays from direct sunshine will kill it, and direct sun light dries out your roof not allowing moisture to congregate. The exact opposite happens on the north facing and shaded sections of your roof.
Algae, Mold, or any fungus needs three things to survive, air, food and water. We discussed the water source being on the north side or under shade, the food source comes from the shingle contents, if you have wood shingles the wood is the obvious food source, if you have asphalt or fiberglass shingles, then the limestone that is used as a thickening agent is the food.
Is it damaging my Tampa Florda area roof? Yes, We have seen moss eat through two layers of shingles right into the wood underlayment, black algae is a surface feeder, eating the shingle granules, while spreading over the roof. Just look in your gutter of the infected side, I guarantee it is full of discarded shingle granules. So, yes it can cut a 40 year asphalt or fiberglass shingles life expectancy in half or worse.
What can YOU do about it? 3 choices here, clean your roof yourself, hire a professional non pressure roof cleaning company, or replace the roof. Let’s examine these three options.
Replace it – If you have that kind of money, great! here is the bad news, even though the new fiberglass shingles on the market are algae resistant, buyer beware! Read the shingle warranty.
Roofing Manufacturers only guarantee them for an average of 6 to 10 years, it takes that long before visible signs confirm that black algae is present. If you have the money, and want to buy yourself 6 to 10 years of a clean shingle roof, go for it.
Hire a Tampa non pressure roof cleaning company – Good choice but who?
They are around, usually listed in the yellow pages under “roof cleaning” or “non pressure roof cleaning”
What to look in a Tampa roof cleaning company is very important. 1. references – who have they made happy?
2. Qualifications and Awards 3. inquire about their cleaning product, there are a lot of products out there that will clean a roof but if they heavily chemical laden they will dry out the roof shingle to such a point that a few months down the road on a windy day, shingle pieces will be flying. These product will also stain the face of your home, kill plants and grass, you want them to use something “bio-degradable” that means it will disappear. 4. portfolio, they should have before and after pictures of jobs that they have done and you should take the time to drive by one of the homes and make sure that they didn’t just download pictures off of the Internet 5. do they have a business license? they should. If they can’t provide those 5 things, move on to the next roof cleaning company.
Clean it yourself – Dangerous work, what if you FALL ?. Don’t fall for the “just spray it on and nature will clean it” product sales pitch, that’s BS, it might work but it would be years before it would be clean and you would have to keep reapplying it.
Think about it, IF these product really worked, who would need roof cleaning companies ?
Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa 813-655-8777 services all Tampa Deed Restricted Communities.
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