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The Duration of Moss Prevention and the Neighbors

I got a call from a man who basically said, "I saw a picture of my neighbor's roof on your website. Can you come out and do my roof?"

Here is a picture of the south side of his neighbor's roof in 2006. Too bad I didn't take pictures of North side then too. Obviously it was noticeable enough that the home owners searched around on INTERNET to find me and called me out to do the work. I simply applied the zinc sulphate with my sprayer so that it killed all the moss and persisted on the roof.

South side of roof after moss prevention treatment. I wished now that I had taken a picture of the north side too. But I took photo mainly for salty look for customers. I didn't know at the time that I would be doing their neighbors roof in four years.

Happy Neighbors

The neighbors who got their roof treated. Photo 2010 by Bradly Lewis

Dear Brad,
We are very satisfied with the roof treatment you had done for our homes. First one you did four years ago on our primary house which is still moss free. You did a fine job for my other home too this week. Your charges were also very reasonable.
Thank you.

Mini and Asish

Four years later, here is a picture of the North side of the laminate shingles with decayed moss dirt on the bottom edges. Laminate shingle roofs are among the hardest of roofs to treat.

North side of roof in 2010. Please notice how their roof doesn't have trees near the roof and the roof gets good air flow on all sides. This helps the roof dry out quicker.

Four years later, the moss has died and weathered off the roof. Not all moss will weather off all roofs. Sometimes a side of the roof is protected from sun and rain or trees if it was thick enough. Small amounts of moss weather off fine. Large amounts need brushed off after treated.

On the bottom of the lower shingles (the last ones to dry out after a rain), the decaying moss and roof dirt is feeding algae. If you have larger amounts of moss, and it has been treated, then I recommend brushing it off so you don't get a lot of algae. If you look really, really closely on this close up photo, you can see the beginnings of new moss that you cannot see from the ground until about three years from now. Four years + three years = 7 years between treatments. That is money well spent on moss treatment and prevention.

Some people wonder, "What happens to the dead moss when it falls into my gutter?" The following picture shows how the moss decays into dirt and falls into the gutter. If you have large clumps of moss, either alive or dead, they will plug your gutters. But if you have small amounts of moss, it will decay and weather off slowly and fall into your gutter like this.

Roof dirt and dead moss in gutters