Roof Care and Maintenance (Asphalt Shingles)
Caring for your roof, asphalt shingles with black streaks and mold.
If you look at the houses in your neighborhood, you will most likely notice that some of your neighbor's houses have black streaks running down their asphalt shingles. A lot of people mistakenly believe that these streaks are dirt and/or that the effected shingles are "wearing down".
These streaks are actually a type of algae called Gloeocapsa Magma. If left untreated, it can eventually cause damage to the structure of the shingle. There are two practical solutions to this situation. If your roof is more than a couple years old, we recommend that you contact a roofing company and find out if you are eligible to have your roof re-shingled.
The second option is to have your roof cleaned. This is a heavy duty cleaning process. It is done with Sodium Hypochlorite. This is the most efficient way to clean the shingles. The people that make shingles (Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association) recommend this process. We do not recommend that homeowners attempt to do this themselves. It requires a large amount of Sodium Hypochlorite and can be dangerous unless you know what you are doing. It also requires a delivery system that can safely apply the solution to the shingles.
There are many "roof cleaning" products that claim to remove the algae from your roof. From our experience, nothing works as efficiently and effectively as high grade Sodium Hypochlorite. We do not recommend "spot cleaning" when it comes to most aspects of exterior cleaning. However, we will "spot clean" for roofs. So if you have one side of your roof that has algae and you want just that side cleaned, we will do it for roofs only.
If you need your roof cleaned or have any questions related to roof cleaning, please contact us. We provide this service at a very low cost and are happy to answer any questions you might have.
