[JetVac Cleaning]

Got my first roof clean Friday next week and to be honest I'm a bit worried about it! Everyone I speak to but are not in the cleaning trade say that's a really dodgy thing to do and you could flood people's houses? I personally can't see a problem and my plans are to turbo nozzle it with the machine turned right down on the unloaded. It's a 6 bed house with extension which I have charged a reasonable amount of money to do so don't mind if it takes a fair bit of time. I mainly do drives and patios which I have been doing for about 4 years but am starting to expand my services. Anybody got any advise which might make things easier?

[Matt Gibson]

Are you just using a ladder? harness or anything?

Be careful, thats the best advice, a dirty roof, when wet, is slippery as anything.. always clean a section to walk on.. use a harness and tie off to the ladder if thats the only way you have to do it.. and dont walk on the edge of the tiles, they will break.

What kind of tiles? standard cement?

[JetVac Cleaning]

Will be putting a tower up and using a ridge ladder with a harness and fall arrest. I'm absolutely fine with the roof as I used to do a fair bit of roofing in the building trade so no problem with the risks of falling but am more worried about the potential damage you could do to the interior if you do it wrong. I'm thinking turn the washer down with a turbo and don't wash too close , disconnect the downpipes ect. Obviously there's a right and wrong way to clean it and don't want to get it wrong . It's a modern house with Marley cement tiles so should be under felted ect

[Smudger]

As long as you work from above you should be ok, thick moss is hard work to get off

Darran

[Matt Gibson]

Disconnect downpipes, use tarps on the ground to catch all the moss (is a ba5tard trying to sweep up all the moss from the grass, and rinse down everything covered in the moss/filthy water when your done)

I use the turbo on full noise, but i always ask the customer if the roof is sound, any leaks etc.. i check for major damage or cracked tiles before i start and always have someone in the house when im washing to check for water. If you make it clear what your doin, and that there may be a chance water will ingress if there is a pre existing fault, then they should be fine. Jet washing a perfectly good roof wont cause leaks.

[Jettaway]

Do you need any certs to work at this height with fall arrest?

[Rob@Blast off]

I would like to offer roof cleaning but i'm scared of falling off....

[Smudger]

Then use high access equipment, we do, or have scaffold put up.



Matt is spot on, defo need someone in the house, we had a leak last week, water found it way down into an extension flat roof, (  felt sick !! ) but looking closely we found a large hole in the roof lining that had been allowing water through for some time and you could see the rot in the roof

Darran

[Matt Gibson]

Do you need any certs to work at this height with fall arrest?

Good point. I need to double check with my insurance but i believe im covered up to 20m.
I just bought a load of rope access gear to make our roof cleaning safer. You can get training on how to use it, but to be honest its easy enough to work out. Im planning on booking a basic rope course at some stage over the winter just to have some sort of certification.

[M W.]

Disconnect downpipes, use tarps on the ground to catch all the moss (is a ba5tard trying to sweep up all the moss from the grass, and rinse down everything covered in the moss/filthy water when your done)

I use the turbo on full noise, but i always ask the customer if the roof is sound, any leaks etc.. i check for major damage or cracked tiles before i start and always have someone in the house when im washing to check for water. If you make it clear what your doin, and that there may be a chance water will ingress if there is a pre existing fault, then they should be fine. Jet washing a perfectly good roof wont cause leaks.