Why regular roof cleaning is essential for UK homeowners a comprehensive overview
Have you ever cleaned your roof? A lot of homeowners have never even thought about it. But it's an essential part of home maintenance and should be done regularly. If you're not sure about cleaning your roof, with tips from the Uniwash Team in Darlington here's why regular cleaning is essential.
Do roof tiles get dirty?
Roof tiles get very dirty over time. With rain and hail, snow and wind, things like debris can get whisked away up there. The moisture on the roof can also lead to organic growth on the roof.
What are the dangers of a dirty roof?
If you've got a dirty roof, you might be thinking that nobody will notice - after all, it's high up, right? But this isn't the only thing that you should consider. Having a dirty roof is actually likely to lead to damage.
Water can freeze between tiles
Water lands on the roof, and if moss grows on your roof, the water can get caught in little pools between tiles. When this water gets caught it can often freeze and spread tiles apart. By pushing the tiles, it can cause them to break or cause your home to reduce in energy efficiency.
Moss can cause clay tiles to delaminate
Clay tiles, a common roofing material, are prone to delaminating when under the moisture that mould causes. This is even more likely in the winter months, when the freezing occurs and the water expands.
To help prevent unnecessary damage, these roofs are built at high angles to try and keep them dry.
Cement tiles are damaged by moss
Moss, when not removed by roof cleaning, can damage cement tiles. Cement tiles can grow weak and dusty, and under the strain of moss, they can break.
Brickwork in chimneys can be damaged
Just like tiles, when water sneaks in between brickwork it can freeze and cause damage. This can reduce the structural integrity of your chimney and walls.
Poorly maintained roofs can reduce energy efficiency
In the world that we live in, the energy efficiency of a house is important. It is something that can help us to save money and can reduce the carbon footprint of a property.
By properly maintaining a property's roof, it can help to improve the energy efficiency of the home.
Without roof cleaning, gutters can get blocked
Guttering and the drainage system on a property can be badly blocked by moss and debris if not cleaned properly. This can lead to bending or breaking gutters, expanding and exploding pipes, and small amounts of flooding.
How to clean your roof and increase its longevity
There are two key methods of roof cleaning. You can choose to pressure wash your roof or to use another technique called soft washing. Which method of roof cleaning that you use will largely depend on your skills, ability, and the roof materials that you're faced with.
If you're not sure which of the two you'd like to use, or how to go about doing it, it's probably worth hiring some roof cleaning services as it can devalue your home as well as increase its value.
Roof cleaning services will be able to tell you whether you're better off pressure washing or soft washing. Alternatively, you can just opt to soft wash your roof. Soft washing your roof will prevent the need for any roof repairs while still providing you with a clean roof. Pressure washing, on the other hand, is a roof cleaning method that can lead to damage if done incorrectly.
The safest way to do your roof cleaning is to put the pressure washer away and use your soft washing, low-pressure method instead.
What cleaning solution should you use with the equipment to keep your roof clean?
In the cleaning process you will inevitably need a cleaning solution. An oxygen-based bleach is a good choice when cleaning a roof, as it is not likely to damage roofing materials. Alternative options may well cause damage to the material.
Oxygen-based bleach should also work well to kill off spores of things like lichen, mould and algae. If you're having issues with such things, fungicide may also be useful!
How to protect your roof
If you're wondering how to keep your roof as clean as possible, here are some tips:
keep tree branches from overhanging to prevent damage
trim tree branches to dodge falling leaves
use roof coatings and treatments to increase the longevity of the roof
regularly cleaning your roof can help to prevent mould or algae from developing into an issue
roof inspections can protect you from unseen damage
How often should you clean your roof
You should be sure to clean your roof at least once a year. You can do this by hiring roof cleaning services, or by using your pressure washer or soft washing it. Regardless of how you do it, your property's roof needs to be cleaned with roof cleaner once or twice a year.
If you live in areas where you're more likely to get debris, or there's been a lot of rain or a lot of cold temperatures, you might find that you need to do roof cleaning much more often. Cleaning your roof is the best way to prevent roof repairs from being required.
Often, a dirty roof can lead to expensive repairs, and so being sure that you have a cleaning solution that you trust to get your roof cleaned is important.
When you clean your roof, you should try to use a roof coating to protect the roof and to try to keep the roof clean.
Jenny Kakoudakis likes to blog about interiors. She launched award-winning Seasons in Colour in 2014 and the luxury interior design blog All The Pretty Homes in 2024.
When she is not chasing criminals out of the financial system (her day job), she gets creative by redecorating her own home.
