How much does it cost to have a roof cleaned of moss?

There is no single price for clearing moss off a roof, and anyone quoting one before they have seen it is guessing.

Wey Valley Roofing is family run, with Scott answering the phone himself after more than 36 years on Surrey roofs. Whether you need a roof moss removal or a roof moss removal in Godalming, we cover the whole area.

Call 07428 300474 and a real person will pick up, day, night or weekend.

How much does it cost to have a roof cleaned of moss?

The cost of having a roof cleaned of moss depends on the size and pitch of the roof, how it is accessed, how thick the growth is and whether gutters and valleys need clearing too. A small bungalow is a short job. A steep three storey house with scaffolding is not.

What actually drives the price of a moss clean

Nobody can price a roof properly from the pavement, and anybody who gives you a firm number over the phone is guessing. The figure comes from a handful of plain factors, and once you know them you can see why two houses on the same street get two different quotes.

• Roof area. More tiles, more time. Simple as that.
• Pitch and height. A shallow single storey roof can often be worked safely from a tower. A steep, tall roof may need scaffolding or an edge protection system, and that cost sits on top of the cleaning itself.
• Access. A clear driveway is cheap. A narrow side passage, a conservatory in the way or a neighbour's boundary to negotiate all add hours.
• How thick the moss is. A light green film scrapes off quickly. Years of cushion moss packed into the laps and the valleys is a slower, heavier job.
• What comes with it. Gutters and downpipes will be full of the debris that comes off. Clearing them is part of doing the job properly, not an afterthought.
• Tile condition. If the survey turns up slipped, cracked or delaminating tiles, they want dealing with before or during the clean, not after.

Whether you need a roof moss removal or roof moss removal services Guildford, we cover the whole area. The survey is free, the price is fixed and it comes to you in writing with no obligation attached to it.

Why a survey comes before a number

A proper look at the roof is what turns a guess into a price. That means going up, or putting a drone over it where that gives the clearer view, and looking at the whole covering rather than the one elevation you can see from the garden.

What that inspection is looking for is not only the moss. It is where the moss is thickest and why, which is usually shade, overhanging trees or a north facing slope. It is whether the moss has already lifted tiles or blocked a valley. It is whether the flashings and the mortar at the ridge are sound, because a clean will expose anything that was already loose. And it is whether there is any real problem underneath that a clean will not fix.

Whether you need a roof moss removal or roof moss removal services Woking, we cover the whole area. If the honest answer is that the roof needs a repair more than it needs a wash, that is what gets said, because selling a clean to a roof with a failing covering helps nobody.

The method changes what you are paying for

There is a cheap way to shift moss and there is a right way, and the price difference is smaller than the damage difference. Moss comes off by hand, scraped out of the laps and the valleys, followed by a low pressure soft wash where the covering suits it.

Pressure washing is not used here, and that is a deliberate position rather than a preference. A high pressure lance strips the granule surface off concrete tiles, drives water up under the laps and into the roof space, and can lift or crack slates outright. A roof that looks clean in the afternoon can be a roof that sheds granules into the gutter for the next ten years. The saving on the invoice gets paid back with interest.

Roof coatings are the other place where a moss clean quietly turns into a much bigger bill. They are not pushed here. If a covering is sound after a clean, it is sound, and it does not need a sealed film over the top of it.

Where the money goes further

A moss clean is maintenance, not a one off cure, and the price is easier to accept when the work is set up to last. Cutting back the branches that keep a slope damp does more for the roof than an extra clean would. Clearing the gutters at the same visit means the debris that comes down has somewhere to go rather than sitting in a blocked run and soaking the fascia.

It is also worth knowing what a clean does not do. It does not repair a slipped tile, reseat a cracked ridge or fix a leaking flashing. Those are separate pieces of work, and if the survey finds them they get priced separately and clearly, so you can see what is cleaning and what is repair rather than one lump sum you cannot read.

Every job carries a 25 year written workmanship guarantee, handed over before the team leaves, covering repairs as well as new roofs. That is the reason the price is what it is, and the reason there is no interest in doing the quick version.