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.
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.