Roof cleaning in Hope Mills

North facing planes go first

The same conditions that make Hope Mills siding green make its roofs streak. Humidity off the lake and the creek, plus older tree cover holding moisture, means the planes that get least sun stay damp longest. Those streak first and worst, and because they usually face away from the street nobody notices until it has spread round.

The organism responsible feeds on the limestone filler in asphalt shingles, which is why it starts high and runs down. It is not the roof wearing out.

The mistake that costs a roof

Pressure washing a roof is the single most expensive mistake in this trade. The mineral granules on a shingle are the shingle's protection; strip them and the asphalt underneath ages quickly. Pressure also forces water up under the courses.

The result is a roof that looks great for one season and has genuinely lost years. Treatment here is low pressure application, the growth is killed, and the weather rinses it over following rains.

Two storey vinyl, and reaching it safely

The newer subdivisions here are largely two storey, which changes access rather than method. Where a plane can be treated from a ladder or from the ground it is, and nothing is walked that does not need walking. A roof that cannot be reached safely is a roof that gets said so about, rather than attempted.

Booked with the wash, usually

Most Hope Mills roof jobs go on the same visit as the house wash, partly for the setup and partly because the streaking that runs off a roof ends up on the wall below it. Cleaning the wall and leaving the source above it is a short lived result.

What it costs you to leave it

Nothing dramatic happens quickly, which is why roofs get left. What does happen is slow: the organism holds moisture against the shingle, the shaded planes stay wet longer than they should, and debris accumulates in the areas that are already damp. None of that puts a hole in a roof, but none of it is doing the roof any favours either.

The more immediate cost is usually appearance. On a two storey house the roof is a large share of what anybody sees from the street, and streaking reads as neglect on an otherwise well kept property. It is also the thing most likely to get mentioned in a home inspection, where "algae growth on shingles" on a report reliably worries a buyer more than the situation deserves.

Method detail is on the roof cleaning page, and the town on the Hope Mills page.