Roof cleaning

I had mine done last year but no mess anywhere.

It's not good to clean a roof with a jet washer, for the neighbours or the roof itself! Assuming the roof is made of modern tiles, jet washing strips off the top layers and makes the tile more vulnerable to bad weather and eventually you can end up with cracks and fractures.

Our roof has been cleaned but it was done by hand.

My friend who lives in a semi- detatched house had her roof cleaned. The neighbour was adamant he did not want his roof done. He then went on holiday. The roof cleaning man did both roofs despite my friend constantly telling him not to. He broke a lot of tiles on both roofs. Made a great deal of mess and then disappeared. My friend had the difficult job of explaining all this to her neighbour's our when he returned. They are both still trying to contact the roof man, several months later

Blokey is now in our garden looking at our guttering which is bulging and leaking with all the crap from next door’s roof. I am so angry. We had no warning that this was being done. Thought our neighbour was ok, really don’t want to set eyes on her again.

As someone else said using a pressure washer on a roof is a really bad idea and more likely to cause problems. I'd insist on him cleaning out my guttering without the pressure washer and cleaning up whatever mess he's made. If he doesn't tell you neighbour you'll get someone in to do it and give her the bill. My neighbour can be a bit weird but I do try to keep them onside with such things even so she still managed to pressure wash her patio on to mine the day after I'd just cleaned mine. I have a drain put in when patio built but she relies on her patio draining onto mine which is slightly lower which is a bloody cheek, get a drain built as I don't want your filth on my patio. Some people it really is out of sight out of mind.

What's the point of cleaning a roof? Cleaning out guttering yes....but a roof does not need cleaning.

Hilda some roofs seem to accumulate moss and the birds keep pecking at it which causes it to fall to the ground and make a mess. This happened to us and I just cleared it up but perhaps that is the reason some get them cleaned.

Nonnie, the moss which falls to the ground because of the birds does not make much mess at all. Not compared to that blasted all over the place with a jet washer.

Nonnie, I just sweep up the moss that the birds dislodge. I would never have my roof cleaned. The bats would not come back! The lady from the bat conservation group told me I must have a very clean roof, since the bats come every year to raise their babies.

Fresh from the Ex chartered surveyor in the family. Roofs are designed to cope with whatever nature throws at them and to not need anyone going up and washing them down - within normal parameters. Overhanging trees might cause a larger than normal build up of moss but that should just be scraped off, certainly not jet washed.

We had a heavy accumulation of moss on one face of our roof, it had built up over several years and by last year it looked like a lawn!

We got a good local roofing company on, who most emphatically did NOT pressure wash it, but scraped it down, replaced broken and slipped tiles and then sprayed the roof with moss inhibitor. They then put the moss in big bags for us to turn into compost or use as a mulch in the garden and left everywhere immaculate. We only had the moss affected face treated, not the whole roof. The work took about a week from start to finish.

This work caused absolutely no disturbance or problems for our neighbour in any way.

I’m assuming all is over and peace and cleanliness is restored. It’s give and take if you want good relations with the neighbours.

I've never heard of anyone having their roof cleaned! WHY?
Gutterings, yes.

MOnica, sounds exactly the right sort of job! Bet you're nice to live next door too!

I've never heard of anyone having their roof cleaned either. I have an awful problem with moss and despite sweeping it up two days ago my patio looks awful but I don't think I would have it cleaned off, just keep sweeping.
Surely it will only come back anyway.

I do feel sorry for you. Actually, I've never heard of anyone having their roof cleaned.

I hope the contractor keeps to his word and does clean up.

As far as your neighbour is concerned, I think they should have mentioned it to you that they were having this work done. The only thing I can think is that they didn't realise how much disruption it would cause to you.

I hope the situation gets resolved and you don't have a permanent fall-out with your neighbour.

We have nearly finished cleaning up. Apparently our neighbor did not know they were going to clean the roof yesterday. The clean roof looks bloody awful, all pink and bare like a gaping wound. At least one broken tile and damage to a ridge tile. Smirk. (Oh dear, did I just say that?)

If you have a lot of moss on your roof, you should have it cleaned of. Moss holds water and in winter the water will freeze and unfreeze and this can cause clay tiles to spall and slates can laminate leading to damp getting through and rotting roof timbers. Weeds can also root if the moss is thick enough and the roots penetrate between the tiles, also leading to damp problems.

Our house is listed and clay tiles were relatively soft. Pressure washing could have damaged them irreparably. Our roofing co said that they always cleared moss from roofs by hand and would never use a pressure washer, not even on concrete tiles.

We were told by our builder that moss is a healthy sign on a roof so we just leave it.

I’ve never heard of house roofs being cleaned, either. Guttering, yes and also conservatory roofs, but that’s all.

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Sorry you have had such an upset.

I think a lot of 'new' businesses have sprung up with people losing their jobs to try and survive this crisis, it sounds as though your neighbour's workers weren't very experienced. No excuse for no notice considering the impact it had on you.

I had a sofa collected yesterday by a 'man with a van', lovely young man who had lost his job as a bar manager during Covid. He has teamed up with a friend with a van and has gone into removals.

I've just realised how old this is!

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