Is it worth having your roof cleaned?

Roof cleaning is worth paying for on some roofs and a waste of money on others, and the difference is easy enough to see once someone looks properly.

Whether you need roof cleaning or roof cleaning in Godalming, we cover the whole of Surrey and the Wey Valley, with more than 36 years on Surrey roofs behind every job and a 25-year written workmanship guarantee handed over in writing.

Call 07428 300474 and a real person will talk through whether your roof needs cleaning at all.

Is it worth having your roof cleaned?

Often yes, but not always. Having your roof cleaned is worth it when moss is holding water against tiles, blocking gutters or lifting slates, because that shortens the life of the covering. It is not worth it as pure cosmetics on a roof that is already near the end of its working life.

What moss and algae actually do to a roof

Moss is not just a green stain on the surface. It grows in the joints and laps between tiles and slates, and it holds water where the roof was designed to shed it. Wet tiles freeze harder in winter, and repeated freeze and thaw is what breaks the face off a concrete tile or delaminates a slate. Thick moss also creeps under the tail of a tile and lifts it slightly, which is enough to let wind-driven rain track sideways instead of running down the roof.

The other real problem is the material that comes off. Moss sheds constantly into the gutters. Blocked gutters overflow down the wall, soak the fascia and soffit, and eventually rot timber that would have lasted decades. Plenty of the damp patches we get called out to look at are nothing to do with the roof covering at all, they are a gutter that has been full of moss for three years. Whether you need roof cleaning or roof cleaning services Guildford, we cover the whole of Surrey and the Wey Valley.

Algae and lichen are less damaging, mechanically speaking. Black streaking on a north-facing slope is mostly appearance. Lichen bonds hard to the tile surface and cannot be taken off without taking some of the tile with it, which is why we leave it alone rather than scrub a roof back to bare aggregate for the sake of a photograph.

When cleaning is worth doing and when it is not

Cleaning earns its money on a roof that has plenty of life left. A tiled roof at fifteen or twenty years old, with sound fixings and a good underlay, carrying two inches of moss, is a straightforward case. Take the moss off, clear the gutters, and the roof carries on doing its job. Same with a roof where moss is packing the valleys or sitting against a chimney flashing.

It is not worth doing on a roof that is failing. If tiles are already spalling, if the battens are soft, if the underlay has perished into strips, then cleaning is money spent on something that needs replacing. We will say so. A survey that ends in "clean it and leave it another ten years" is a good outcome, and so is one that ends in "do not bother, budget for a reroof". Whether you need roof cleaning or roof cleaning services Woking, we cover the whole area and give you the same honest read either way.

It is also not worth doing as a lead-in to something else. Some outfits clean a roof and then push a coating onto it. We do not sell roof coatings and we do not hard sell anything. If you are looking for a roofer close to home in Surrey or the Wey Valley, a real person answers the phone and will tell you straight whether the job is needed.

How the roof should be cleaned, and how it should not

Method matters more than most people expect. We soft wash at low pressure and scrape moss off by hand. That is slower and it is deliberate.

Pressure washing a roof is the fastest way to cause damage. High pressure strips the surface layer off concrete tiles, drives water up under laps and through the nail holes onto the underlay, and shifts tiles off their fixings. A roof cleaned that way often looks better for two years and then loses tiles in the first proper gale. We do not pressure wash roofs, on any covering.

Hand scraping deals with the moss where it is actually causing trouble, in the joints and under the tails, and it lets whoever is up there see the roof properly while they work. Slipped tiles, cracked mortar, a lifted flashing, a valley that has silted up: those get spotted during the clean rather than after the next storm. Our roof cleaning services include clearing the gutters down afterwards, because leaving the debris in the gutter undoes half the point of the job.

Fixings get checked as part of the same visit. Where tiles need refixing, that is done to BS 5534 for fixing and wind uplift, which is the standard that covers how a roof stays put in Surrey weather.

What a proper clean leaves you with

Done properly, a clean gives you a roof that sheds water the way it was designed to, gutters that run, and a clear picture of what condition the covering is genuinely in. That last part is worth as much as the cleaning. You know whether you are looking at another twenty years or a reroof inside five, and you can plan instead of react.

• Moss out of the joints, laps and valleys, taken off by hand
• Gutters and downpipes cleared so rainwater goes where it should
• Slipped, cracked or loose tiles identified while the roof is being worked on
• Flashings and mortar looked at properly, not glanced at from the ground
• A written fixed price before anything starts, and no charge for the survey
• A 25-year written workmanship guarantee handed over before the team leaves

Scott has spent more than 36 years on Surrey roofs and the work is done by our own local roofers, not subcontracted out. The survey is free and includes a drone view where that helps, and if a smaller repair is all the roof needs, that is what we will tell you.