Roof cleaning, moss removal & maintenance in Macclesfield
Moss is not, in itself, an emergency, and anybody telling you otherwise on your doorstep is selling. What moss actually does is hold water against the covering, which matters on a porous concrete tile in a frost pocket, and it breaks off and blocks the gutters, which matters everywhere. On a sound slate roof it is largely cosmetic.
How it is removed matters far more than whether it is removed. A pressure washer on a roof is one of the most damaging things that can be done to it: it strips the granular surface off concrete tiles, drives water under the laps and into the roof space, and shortens the life of the covering it is supposedly protecting. Scraping and brushing by hand, then treating with a biocide and letting the weather take the residue, is slower and correct.
The maintenance that genuinely pays is unglamorous: gutters cleared before winter, a look at the flashings and the stack once a year, valleys kept free, and any slipped slate dealt with while it is still one slate. On a house with trees over it that is an annual job; on an exposed roof with nothing overhanging, every two or three years is honest.
The other half of maintenance is knowing when to leave it alone. Roof coatings and 'sealants' sprayed over an old tiled roof are widely sold and rarely a good idea — they trap moisture, they can void a survey, and they make the roof harder to repair afterwards. If a roof needs replacing, a coating does not replace it.
Moss removal & maintenance — every job, in detail.
5 jobs in this category. Each has its own page explaining what's involved, what your roofer checks and — just as importantly — when a job can safely wait.
Moss removal
Moss is scraped and brushed off by hand and then treated with a biocide, never pressure washed. What it actually causes is blocked gutters and, on porous tiles in a frost pocket, water held against the covering — it is not the emergency it gets sold as.
Read more →Roof cleaning
Cleaning a roof is done by hand with a biocide, and it improves appearance and clears the gutters of what would otherwise fall into them. What is worth avoiding is anything involving high pressure, and any offer to seal or coat the roof afterwards.
Read more →Annual roof check
A scheduled look at the roof, the flashings, the chimney and the rainwater goods, with photographs and a note of what needs doing. It catches the slipped slate and the cracked flaunching while they are still small, which is where nearly all the savings in roofing are.
Read more →Winter roof preparation
An autumn visit to clear the gutters and valleys and deal with anything already loose, before the weather that will find it. On the exposed ground east of the town this is the single most useful thing that can be done to a roof in a year.
Read more →Bird & pest proofing
Birds, squirrels and wasps get into a roof through gaps at the eaves, under loose ridge tiles or through rotten soffits. Proofing means closing the actual entry points properly, at the right time of year, and repairing whatever let them in.
Read more →Not sure which one you need?
Describe it in your own words on the quote form. Your roofer will work out what the job actually is when they ring you back — usually the same day.
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Tell us what you need and it goes straight to our Macclesfield roofer — one callback, usually the same day. The quote is free and there's no obligation.