Moss on roof

Q: Aside from aesthetics, what is the harm of having moss growing on my roof?

A: It reduces the lifespan of your roof.

A: It’s really easy to take care of. They sell moss-killing stuff at hardware and gardening stores. Just mix it with some water (there will be instructions for how much on the thing you buy), put it in a watering can, get up on the roof, and pour it all over the roof. A couple days later, get up on the roof with a big push broom and sweep off all the dead stuff. This should keep the moss from growing back for a couple years.

A: You can also spread some Tide with bleach (powder) right before it’s expected to rain (Costco sells big boxes). The rain will spread it out and the bleach will kill the moss within a week.

A: Just be aware if you have composite shingles that pressure washing can damage your roof and can include causing your roof to leak immediately. Most contractors believe you lose 3-5 years of life from your roof from pressure washing. If you use bleach (you don’t need Tide), make sure you don’t use more than a 1% bleach solution as this can damage your roof. If the moss is dead you can sweep it off, if not you can put zinc strips at the top of the roof and with the rain it will eventually kill off the moss. The main point is you want to keep the granules on your roof

A: Zinc strips work perfect and I’ve used them for 15 years…replace every 5 or so.