Look out moss! Here I come! Because our house faces North, the roof over the front porch is both in shade all day long, and it is under the cover of the giant Hickory tree. So moss has grown there forever. When I tore off all the roofing in 2007 and 2008 I put a brand new roof on the house, it looked so beautiful. But slowly the moss began to accumulate again. In the fall sometimes I climb up on the roof with a ladder and wearing work gloves, I rub the moss by hand gently and it rolls up into balls sort of and then rolls off the roof. But that doesnt remove it enough. So I did some research and found a commercial chemical that will kill the moss. I got the material last Fall but the weather was not good. So I started reading the instructions and discovered that I need to be really protected when using this material. It can damage my eyes! And you can't allow it to touch your skin! Yikes! The material is in small granules and you can either sprinkle that on the moss, or you can mix it with water in a sprayer, and spray it on. I elected to do that, and I had the sprayer set, not to spray a mist, but a steady stream so that there were no fine mist particles in the air while I was working. That was a good choice and I could carefully control the stream and soak all of the moss on the roof. I just needed to be careful and I was. I had another idea - instead of being out on the roof, I sprayed the front roof from the windows in Liz and Amy's bedrooms. It worked perfectly, and no risk of sliding off the roof!
This photograph shows how much moss there is and how thick it is. It is kind of beautiful in a way with the deep green colors. By the way, you can't use a hose with a spray nozzle, or a power washer, because that high pressure stream will start to remove the protective granules that are embedded in the asphalt of the roofing. You muse be gentle with these asphalt roofs to keep them in good condition. I am glad to be done with this project
3 comments:
You look like you are ready for a war zone. What an undertaking, but you always research every project. The photo of the moss is really beautiful. It is too bad that it is on your roof and just under the trees. Joan
Thanks, Joan. I was getting my breathing filter on and then the eye protection and happened to see myself in a mirror and thought "Wait, I could make a blog shot out of this... :-)
You do look like you are in a war zone. Technically, you are - against the moss. I’m glad you did your research. The chemical sounds dangerous. Hope the results last…Betsey
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