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Responsible Journalism

John Doherty

New member
I was invited by the board of a large retirement community to do a presentation on roof cleaning.

In the Q&A a guy brings up this scrap of paper from the newspaper and reads it. I was quick to bring up ARMA, GAF, and Owens Corning info and question the credentials of the writer, but still what a pain.

When I get a chance I'm going to politely write to this guy and see where he's coming from. He's Al Heavens the Philadelphia Inquirer Real Estate Columnist.

But anyway the board wants me back to discuss offering a package deal for the community to do 10 roofs at a time!!

Here's the info from the paper.

Question: Last year, you wrote about what to do about black marks on roofs. You said it was algae that built up from the product used in the shingles, and you gave a remedy for cleaning it off the shingles.

Well, I cut your article out for a spring project and, yep, you guessed it, now that spring is here, I cannot find the article. I wonder if you can tell me again how I can remove the unsightly black marks from my roof easily.

Answer: Fiberglass asphalt shingles these days have a limestone filler instead of the traditional rag filler, and the limestone promotes the growth of algae that shows up in horrible streaks on roof areas that don't get much sun. Have your roofer nail copper or zinc strips on the peaks above these areas, so rain running over the strips will kill the algae. Or look into shingles containing copper to solve that problem.

Whatever you do, don't try cleaning the black stains, or mildew, for that matter, with water and bleach. It will reduce the life of asphalt shingles.
 

Scott Millen

New member
A great demonstration of how dangerous a little misinformation can be in the hands of a a fool. There are debateable different methods for roof cleaning, but the one he advocates is the worst, and he feels the authority to dismiss the manufacturer-recommended method! How'd you like to tell a customer that, "..in just a few months or years, your shingles should be (mostly) algae-free..." What a pitchman that would take!

I sincerely hope that the UAMCC will build the kind of credibility to nip this junk information, and other information akin to it in the bud.

Barry Maddox has some great materials for rebuttal if you need some ammo, but it sounds like you have this pretty well in hand.

In a related note, it irritates me to no end how guys like this, and other keyword kowboys, can get bad methodology to turn up in the search engines so reliably. It makes our jobs harder every year, and is just the sort of thing a national organization can help to influence, if the membership can get behind it.
 
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