A little background on how I started Roof Sparkle. A company that’s making cleaning products asked me if I could make a video for some of their cleaning products. Now I won’t go into details on who they are but they had a roof cleaner that involved the use of a power washer. A big red flag in my eyes. Being a contractor for years, I knew right off the bat that was a big no-no.
So the next question I asked myself what’s that black stuff on the roof. Well, it’s mold. And what kills mold, bleach right. Well, as true as that is bleach is only made up of 5-6% Sodium Hypocrite. And that’s great for your whites and around the house but not on your roof.
For the roof, you will need something a lot more powerful. Some of you may know it as pool shock. This is made up of 12% by weight “Sodium Hypochlorite”. But because it’s as thin as the water it will run right off the roof and not really have the time (five minutes) to do its job. So we have to thicken up a bit. The best way, add some liquid dish soap to the mix to help the SH stick to the roof for more than one second. You can go into any pool supply and ask for a gallon of shock, for about $4.00 per gallon. This is just a heavy-duty version of household bleach. And no Walmart does not sell this or the big box stores. This method will remove algae from a roof.
Now, of course, we buy it from the manufacturer and by the truckloads at a time.
Applying It
When we started we used a regular bug sprayer. Use a three gallon pump sprayer, use one gallon of SH and two gallons of water (H2O) add about 4 oz. of liquid dish soap and spray from the roof top working your way down.
DON’T
- clean your roof when it’s super hot out in the baking sun. It will kill the SH and dry before it’s clean.
- Don’t touch the SH with bare hands. Wear gloves and eye protection.
- Don’t spray your roof down first with water to cool it off.
Comments ( 173 )
I have a 1 Gallon bug Sprayer. I don’t have a 3 Gallon one. If i mix 1 gallon of liquid pool shock with two gallons of water inside a 5 gallon bucket. Can i pour 1 gallon at a time into my bug sprayer.. Will i mess up the ratio? Thanx for the help
Try a third of SH and the rest water.. or for a stronger mix use 50/50
Will this work in the cold weather? My husband and I are going to settlement on a summer home in northern PA in December and we can’t get homeowners with all the moss on the roof. We have to agree to get rid of it ASAP after settlement. We plan on a new roof in spring anyway.
How old is the question or how old is the roof? The roof is at least 18 years old. The question is current. We will not be able to work on the roof until settlment that is in early December this year 2013.
It will, but how old is the question. The cold does degrade the SH.
When is it advisable to rinse vs no rinse, or is it safe to never rise. Doesn’t the dry material left on roof have a chance to leach heavy amounts of product in a rainstorm to down spouts after the initial appl, and plant lawn heavy rinsing has been done. Also could you repeat a few appls during the day for stains etc with no ill effect. Thanks for your input and bty GREAT SITE
Thank you. It really depends on how dirty your roof is. The SH will die once the heat gets to it. So no worry there. With the first app if the roof is clean, leave it. Gives better protect if you leave it on.
Can I use this mixture on my tile roof?
Yes, but for tiled roofs you may need to add more SH / pool shock
I”m in Oregon. Can SH be applied when it wet outside? Or must the moss be dry?
If it’s wet you’ll just need a little stronger mix. But dry is better.
At what temperature does the mixture start degrading? I live in New Hampshire and have about 1/3 of my roof in moss, thanks to some Maples. I’d like to clear the moss as soon as possible to save money on my insurance, but am concerned about the temperature.
Anything close to freezing is not good for the SH
I am want to start a buisness in roof washing concrete and vinyl sideing. I saw your reply about 500$ for your help. I am very interested in what info u would give me?
I would give you all the info you need to know to start your own roof cleaning business.
So glad I found this. I’m purchasing a home and thought the roof was in need of replacement. The roof has that ugly black stain but only on the North side as you said. The other side looks brand new. I’ll be using these techniques right after moving in!
Thanks!
Glad I could help out.
I’ve received three quotes, and the price each is $1200-1300 which is out of my budge. My roof is a 10:12 pitch, and somewhat steep. I am trying to figure out a way to spray it myself, without too much mist and overspray, while standing on a ladder. I noticed Northern Tool has “tree sprayers” that shoot 2.2GPM or 5.5GPM out at 60psi.
Do you have a solution where I can do this myself from the ground without walking the roof/
That seems way too high of a price. And no, without spending big bucks on air pumps and special equipment. Send me a picture of your house and I’ll tell you what it should cost.
Can I send you via email? Don’t want to post my house on a public forum.
on the bottom of this page you’ll see “contact Dominick” Use that.
Hi – no water. If we dilute, can’t I buy just cheapo 8.25% bleach?
You need to read what I wrote again. It’s done by weight not volume. Not adding water is VERY DANGEROUS
Thanks for the pic you sent of the ladder, I am going to try that.
I bought a bug sprayer and a gallon of Shock Chlorinating Liquid for Pools (10% Sodium Hypochlorite).
I mixed about half a gallon of undiluted Shock and a half cup of Liquid Tide Free and Clear into the bug sprayer and sprayed a small patch.
Within a few minutes the solution turned very warm to somewhat hot. I am not sure what thermal reaction is going on, but the bottle is sitting outside now.
how much water did you add ? A 1/2 cup is a little much.
Thanks, I just sent you 4 pics.
Same thing for the others as well.
You have a very steep roof no doubt about it. But it’s also a single story. What you would do is get a long extension ladder and lay it right on the roof and spray it with a bug sprayer.
Hi, I’m in the UK and need to spray the moss on my roof (covered with rough Marley concrete roof riles).
I can only find SH in 14% (available chlorine) strength sold in 2.5 UK litre containers, so I’ve bought two.
Could you give me some help on how much SH, water and liquid dish soap to use since this is a stronger solution to mix up, for say one US gallons worth of cleaner solution at a time?
I don’t have a big capacity sprayer or containers, so will mix up smaller quantities about 2 or 4 UK litres as and when required. I’ll be able to convert to UK litres (using 1 US gallon = 3.78541 UK litres) but am unsure of the amounts since this is a higher strength.
Your website, videos and advice are really helpful.
Thanks in advance
Dave
14% very nice. Use it just the way I show. Maybe you could add a little water if you wanted to. But for the most part what I showed is for mold “black stains” So for the moss you would want something stronger anyway.
Hi Dominick, thanks for the quick reply.
I should have said before that I was referring to your video of “How to remove moss from a roof” on YouTube instead of the one on this page.
That shingle roof you cleaned in the video had a similar amount of moss as my concrete tile roof, like a carpet. In December I used a wire brush and scraped of the bulk of it so now want to spray to kill the rest off.
Would you say a third SH to two thirds water would work for my 14% SH and a squirt of dish soap? Or 50/50 mix? As you say, best to have a stronger solution so it works.
Also love your hose spray for the SH in that video, I’ve not been able to find anything similar in the UK to that.
Cheers
Dave
I would go with with a 50/50 mix. Just make sure you rinse very well. SH will kill everything in it’s path ie. plants and stuff like that. Yeah the setup my son uses is very cool. It uses air pumps with 300 feet of hose. Holds 200 gallons of SH and mixed per job right on site. And that whole system was made a designed by me. Took sometime to get it right.