Moss Control
Why should I care about moss on my roof?
The layering of composite shingle roofs can trap moisture and create an ideal breeding ground for moss to take hold and spread. Not only is moss unsightly to the overall aesthetic of your home, but over time it can cause serious issues to the most important part of your home's protection and insulation system - the roof!
Moss acts like a sponge, absorbing rain water as it runs down the roof. Depending on the type of moss, it can capture up to 20-30 times its own weight in water. As moss spreads along your roof and increases the holding capacity, it can contribute to a significant amount of water weight trapped on the roof. Plus, long term exposure to this trapped moisture can contribute to premature erosion of your roofing material and seep down into the wooden structures of your roof leading to rot and integrity concerns or damp insulation.
Long term moss control
Trailhead City Window Cleaning uses a long term approach to moss control through the use of zinc sulfate which prohibits the reproductive cycle of moss. We apply the zinc sulfate to the peaks and ridges of your roof line, and allow the rain to spread it evenly across the surface of the roof. As the moss absorbs the rain water, it also absorbs the zinc sulfate and can no longer spread and reproduce. The existing moss will finish off it's life cycle, as it dies and dries out, it will eventually flake off. With regular applications of zinc sulfate, your roof will become and stay moss free, all without the damaging effects of pressure washing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I be concerned about the use of zinc sulfate on my roof?
No, zinc sulfate will not stain your roof or cause any corrosion of your galvanized or aluminum gutters.
Wouldn't it be quicker to pressure wash the moss off the roof?
While pressure washing can be effective at stripping moss off the surface of your roof, it can often to more harm than good. The high pressure of the water can also damage your roof surface, strip away some of the layers of shingles, or trap moisture down below the roof along the wood components. Plus, pressure washing does nothing to prevent the re-growth of moss in the future, so you'll end up needing future treatments anyways.
Do you brush off the existing moss before applying the zinc sulfate?
We do not utilize any forceful moss removal practices including brushing moss off the roof. Similar to pressure washing, brushing can offer you a more immediate result in the aesthetic of your roof, but the abrasive technique also damages your roof. This is because in order to grow, the moss roots itself within the granules of the roof, and as you remove the moss, it also removes the surface of your roof shingles, compromising the roof's integrity and overall shortening the lifespan.
Trailhead City strongly recommends avoiding any type of abrasive removal techniques for moss treatment and allow the zinc sulfate to kill and prevent moss growth over time, without damaging any part of your roof material.
Will I notice immediate results from this moss control method?
Using zinc sulfate to control moss is a long term solution, so you will not notice an immediate difference in the amount of moss on your roof. Overtime, the solution prevents moss from reproducing, so as the original growth finishes its life cycle and dies off, the overall amount of moss will decrease. Regular applications of moss treatment are recommended to continue preventing new growth.
How often should I have moss treatment applied?
That depends on the current state of your roof. If you have minimal to no moss growth currently, we typically recommend a maintenance plan of an annual application to help keep it that way. That said, there are certain conditions where we may recommend more frequent applications (2-3x per year) such as if your roof is heavily shaded by forest coverage which can contribute to quicker growth of moss.
If your roof currently has a high level of moss growth, we would recommend a more aggressive treatment plan until we can get it to the maintenance level. Depending on the conditions of your home, we typically start with an application every 3 or 4 months, until we get to a point of scaling back to biannual and eventually preventative annual applications.
I have a new roof, or I don't see any moss on my roof, why should I consider moss treatment?
Because prevention is so much easier, affordable, and effective long term! Routine annual or biannual applications of zinc sulfate will help prevent any growth of moss before it even starts and contribute to an increased lifespan of your roof in the long run. Planning routine applications allows you to plan for the service into your home maintenance budget and cost you so much less overall than having to treat heavy moss growth or worse, deal with water damage to your roof from the effects it can cause down the road.