If your roof has green stuff growing on it it’s time to change that.
No matter where you live, if you have trees or rain, you’re probably familiar with seeing moss, black streaks, mold, and algae growing on roofs in your area.
This can cause all sorts of problems. From water damage, to Insurance companies not renewing your policy to just plain not looking good this stuff has got to go!
Over the decades, there have been many different methods used to keep roofs clean with certain chemicals like zinc, copper, baking soda, sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach), sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach) and many more.
Today we will dive into the awesome effects of using Oxygen bleach to clean and keep clean, your roof.
Why Use Oxygen Bleach?
Oxygen bleach is sodium percarbonate which is powdered hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate (soda ash).
When mixed with water these two break apart and the hydrogen peroxide becomes available to clean things.
Historically used with laundry, teeth whitening, and other types of cleaners they all rely on the power of oxygen to clean stuff because oxygen is inherently corrosive.
For example look at what happens to an apple when you cut it and exposed to air. The oxygen browns the cut parts.
Similar to what happens when you apply your cleaning solution of oxygen bleach to a roof.
The peroxide (H2O2) foams up and kills organic material like moss, black algae or gloeocapsa magma which all rely on their cell walls to not be ripped apart by that extra oxygen molecule.
This is all we need for our purposes of roof cleaning.
How to actually clean a roof
Oxygen bleach like Spencer’s Eco Roof Wash is available as a white powder. This can be added at a ratio of 1/2 cup per gallon of water or 1 pound of oxygen bleach to clean 1,000 square feet.
Add this to something like a soft wash tank or pump sprayer and add some surfactant. This will help to make bubbles and allow our solution to stick to the roof for longer.
Most roofs are asphalt shingles so a good amount of surfactant is about 1 ounce per gallon to properly clean them with enough bubbles.
Additionally you can spray your oxygen bleach on other surfaces like houses, fences, and concrete HOWEVER these often need a pressure washer to properly clean.
Think of the oxy bleach as more of a loosening agent whereas with a roof we simply need to kill the stuff on the roof and mother nature does the rest.
Since all it needs to be activated is water, you can even sprinkle the dry powder on the surface you want to clean and then just spray it with any old garden hose or something and watch the magic happen!
Our containers of Spencer’s Eco Roof Wash contain 6 pounds of our oxygen cleaner and approximately 1 pound covers 1,000 square feet so typically one container is enough to treat the average roof.
If there is bulk moss or any debris always be sure to remove as much as you can by hand.
Some moss is so stubborn that even if you kill it it never quite falls off so we recommend cleaning about 90% of any and all moss you can before applying.
Take this image for example. Here I removed almost all the moss by gentle brush, blew the rest off with the leaf blower, cleaned out the gutters and then sprayed it with oxygen bleach to deliver a perfect roof clean.
Works every time!
Do I need to rinse?
A very common question, rinsing is a heavily debated topic in the roof cleaning community.
Based on many experts and my personal opinion, rinsing is NOT recommended when roof cleaning. The reason is because we want the chemical to work as long as possible. Eventually it breaks down into just harmless water and sodium carbonate but the longer this is on the roof the better.
Moss and algae are always floating around in the air in the form of spores so the longer you can keep that algae growth at bay the longer your roof will look and be clean.
The rain will rinse anything else off eventually anyways!
What about normal chlorine bleach?
We still use normal sodium hypochlorite (SH) otherwise known as chlorine bleach or pool shock all the time.
Generally for the toughest stains or heavy black streaks I still always have some normal SH on me at all times when I am out cleaning roofs.
It is definitely more corrosive and caustic than our Oxygen bleach. It will stain your clothes and can burn your skin, eyes, and surrounding plants alot worse than using Oxy bleach.
But to this day it is all many companies use because that’s all they know.
As my dad used to say “when all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail”
And there are MANY instances where you don’t want to just hammer something with standard chlorine bleach when oxygen bleach might be a much better choice.
Cedar roofs in particular tend not to respond very well to standard bleach as it can break down the fibers in the wood. This is why channels like Outside Cleaners in Massachusetts also use it quite often for these sorts of roofs and decks.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for an eco friendly option for cleaning roofs check out our cleaning products! They have been tried and tested and work on any roof you can think of but particularly for asphalt shingle, cedar shake, and tile roofs.
For an in depth video checkout my recent youtube video on Why people are starting to use Oxygen bleach on roofs or if you want to learn more about starting a roof and gutter cleaning business I have a $7 ebook all about it here.
Try oxygen bleach on your next clean and let me know how it goes!