Could do with a bit of help with the following. I went to this house today. The owner wanted the roof power washed. It is covered in lichen as you can see from the photos. I would like your and everybodys elses opinion as to the best method of dealing with it. Today I just treated it with fungicide. I also cleaned his concrete footpaths and his slabs. I used 35ltrs of SH, 65ltrs of water with 17 ounces of Green Wash. I treated it twice with a two hour gap inbetween. It improved a bit but I still had to power wash it. What way would you guys go about it. Lastly as you can see from the final pictures there is a lot of black fungus spots on the concrete. This is a big problem over here especially on Indian sandstone slabs. Is there a way to remove these unsightly spots. Thanks in advance.
Wow it came out great except for those yucky black spots. Give it some rain if you have the time. If not wip out the no no blaster and blow them off. Sometimes surfaces that have been neglected for MANY years need some scrubbing and or blasting. Once that is done they are easily maintained with soft washing for the rest of their service life.
AC
Michael Hickey said
Sep 22, 2012
Thanks AC, what do you recommend for the roof as the home owner wants the lichen removed.
Michael Hickey said
Sep 22, 2012
Surely someone has an idea on how to remove the lichen even if it includes pressure washing.
thanks guys
Michael Derose said
Sep 22, 2012
UUse a 1515 tip with the pressure washer. At 4gpm it will cut the psi to about 2-300 psi. Just don't get to close.
AC Lockyer said
Sep 22, 2012
Good advice Mike. I really dont know much about Pressure Washing.
AC
Doug Rucker said
Sep 22, 2012
Couple good rains the Lichen will wash right off...deal with all the time here in houston...
Danny Cronauer said
Sep 23, 2012
Doug Rucker wrote:
Couple good rains the Lichen will wash right off...deal with all the time here in houston...
This is your answer, Mike I am suprised your recommended the rinsing. You just spray it on, let the lichen turn white and die. I tell my customers up to 6 months. It really depends on how much rain we have. But it will eventually come off.
Michael Hickey said
Sep 23, 2012
Thanks guys, good advice and I will tell the homeowner what to expect.
Michael Derose said
Sep 23, 2012
Dan, I only suggested that if he really needs to get it off right away. I have only done 2 this year like that and it was because the insurance company wanted it off right away or they would cancel their policy. Otherwise I allow the rain to rinse it off.
Mike Laskowski said
Sep 23, 2012
I do not recommend rinsing....at least not on the same day as the cleaning. The ideal situation is to let mother nature takes its course but there are situations where the removal process needs to be at least accelerated depending on your customers needs and goals (ie. selling a house, insurance, etc...) Disclaimer: Rinsing a roof will increase the likelihood to incur granular loss and therefore you will be shortening the roof shingle's overall service life and this is important to educate your customer about. We have all heard or used the example of using roundup on a weed is similar to soft washing roofs. And continuing with that analogy when you spray a weed with roundup and were then to try and pull that weed out immediately its hold is just as strong as if you hadn't even sprayed it at all. However, if you allow time to pass that same weed will become dry and brittle (because its now dead) and you can now remove it with far less force and thus pull it out with less dirt being pulled up or in our situation granular loss. The rinsing process' goal is not to pull out the lichen's or moss' root system but rather the rinsing process' goal is to sever the moss or lichen from its root system thus leaving the root system still in the shingle. I would allow at least a few weeks to pass before attempting to use garden hose pressure only to rinse off the now dry and brittle moss and lichens. If it requires more than garden hose pressure you are damaging the shingle... Therefore customer education is the key.
Danny Cronauer said
Sep 23, 2012
michael derose wrote:
Dan, I only suggested that if he really needs to get it off right away. I have only done 2 this year like that and it was because the insurance company wanted it off right away or they would cancel their policy. Otherwise I allow the rain to rinse it off.
Hi AC,
Could do with a bit of help with the following. I went to this house today. The owner wanted the roof power washed. It is covered in lichen as you can see from the photos. I would like your and everybodys elses opinion as to the best method of dealing with it. Today I just treated it with fungicide. I also cleaned his concrete footpaths and his slabs. I used 35ltrs of SH, 65ltrs of water with 17 ounces of Green Wash. I treated it twice with a two hour gap inbetween. It improved a bit but I still had to power wash it. What way would you guys go about it. Lastly as you can see from the final pictures there is a lot of black fungus spots on the concrete. This is a big problem over here especially on Indian sandstone slabs. Is there a way to remove these unsightly spots. Thanks in advance.
Michael
AC
thanks guys
AC
This is your answer, Mike I am suprised your recommended the rinsing. You just spray it on, let the lichen turn white and die. I tell my customers up to 6 months. It really depends on how much rain we have. But it will eventually come off.
I only suggested that if he really needs to get it off right away. I have only done 2 this year like that and it was because the insurance company wanted it off right away or they would cancel their policy. Otherwise I allow the rain to rinse it off.
I do not recommend rinsing....at least not on the same day as the cleaning. The ideal situation is to let mother nature takes its course but there are situations where the removal process needs to be at least accelerated depending on your customers needs and goals (ie. selling a house, insurance, etc...) Disclaimer: Rinsing a roof will increase the likelihood to incur granular loss and therefore you will be shortening the roof shingle's overall service life and this is important to educate your customer about. We have all heard or used the example of using roundup on a weed is similar to soft washing roofs. And continuing with that analogy when you spray a weed with roundup and were then to try and pull that weed out immediately its hold is just as strong as if you hadn't even sprayed it at all. However, if you allow time to pass that same weed will become dry and brittle (because its now dead) and you can now remove it with far less force and thus pull it out with less dirt being pulled up or in our situation granular loss. The rinsing process' goal is not to pull out the lichen's or moss' root system but rather the rinsing process' goal is to sever the moss or lichen from its root system thus leaving the root system still in the shingle. I would allow at least a few weeks to pass before attempting to use garden hose pressure only to rinse off the now dry and brittle moss and lichens. If it requires more than garden hose pressure you are damaging the shingle... Therefore customer education is the key.
Gotcha Mike. That make more sense.