Why is Pressure Washing Potentially Damaging for Your Roof When Having it Cleaned?

Are you preparing to sell your home and looking at ways of maximising its value? Perhaps your roof has become overgrown with moss or other dirt and algae, and you are investigating the different cleaning options available to you. Maybe you already understand the benefits of roof moss removal?

Nearly everyone has used a pressure washer in recent years, and in most cases, have been blown away by the stunning results they can and do deliver. So surely it makes sense to clean your roof with the help of a trusty pressure washer. The reality is that pressure washing your roof is one of the worst decisions you could ever make and should be avoided at all costs. Although it might leave your roof sparklingly clean, it could also do irreparable damage to your roof and reduce its lifespan drastically.

What Could Happen When You Pressure Wash Your Roof

Not all roofs are the same, but in the United Kingdom, the most frequently use tiles are made from concrete. If you look at any rook in the UK, you will be able to identify the concrete roofs by their appearance – a sandy-granular appearance on the surface of the exposed tile. The average lifespan of these tiles in the UK environment is approximately eighty years. In essence, when you power wash any surface, you remove any moss, dirt, and debris by force – this is equivalent to rubbing your roof tiles with coarse sandpaper. The result is that you will end up removing additional layers of the tile, in addition to the moss or dirt. This, in turn, means that you are dramatically reducing your roof’s lifespan, with the extra risk of causing a leak as part of the process.

The Hidden Risks of Pressure Washing A Roof

As well as removing layers of the roof tile, when pressure washing a roof, many tile manufacturers have said that the use of a pressure washer to clean your roof will invalidate any guarantee offered by the manufacturer at the time of the purchase. This alone should be sufficient to highlight the risks of pressure washing a roof. Part of the thinking behind this policy is that in addition to removing layers of the tile, it can also weaken the roof’s structural integrity.

It Could Flood Your Loft

Another issue which many people are unaware of when it comes to pressure washing a roof is that anyone undertaking this task with a pressure washer is likely to be an amateur and, as a consequence, will not have the right knowledge of equipment. This means that they will probably be working from a ladder and cleaning from below the roofline. In essence, they are then pushing water at high pressure up the roof, rather than down it, forcing water underneath your tiles. This means that not only is there a risk of breaking or dislodging tiles, but in addition, that water could then go under the tiles and seep into your loft, causing untold damage.

If you have decided that your roof needs to be cleaned, our advice would be to utilize a professional roof cleaning company‘s services, and under no circumstances to ever contemplate using a pressure washer on your roof. It might seem like the most inexpensive option at the time, but the reality is that choosing to power wash your roof could be a costly mistake.

Here at Concept Roof Cleaning we always use safe methods of access for roof cleaning, including cherry pickers and mobile access towers – the safest option for your property and our staff is to manually scrape the moss from your roof and not consider pressure washing unless absolutely necessary.