Roof Cleaning in Armada

Two conditions drive roof work around Armada. Inside the village, mature trees over the blocks near Main St and Fulton St hold shade on north slopes for hours after sunrise, and the damp creek bottom along the East Branch of Coon Creek keeps the air under them humid. Roof algae needs precisely that combination, and it spreads across a slope as a dark stain that runs downhill from the ridge. Overhanging limbs make it worse by adding organic litter to the same shingles. Out on the township roofs along Armada Ridge Rd there is sun and wind instead, so streaking starts later, though those roofs are larger and the access is higher.

Moss is the second problem, and it is a different animal. Where limbs sit close over a north slope, moss builds a mat that holds water against the shingle through every freeze and thaw. Water that sits under a mat works into the seam between courses and lifts the edge, and once a granule bed is loose, the shingle underneath ages fast. On the older village roofs between Main St and the Armada Area Schools campus on Burk St, steep pitch and multiple gables mean the moss usually concentrates in valleys and along the lower courses where litter collects. Pulling it off dry takes granules with it, which is why treatment comes first and time does the rest.

Every roof we treat gets a low-pressure chemical application and nothing else. No pressure washer touches asphalt shingles, because the force that lifts a streak also lifts the granules that make the shingle a roof. The solution kills the growth where it stands, light streaking fades within days, and heavier staining washes off over the following few weeks of rain. Treatment starts at $450, and the result holds for three to five years, with shaded slopes near the creek at the short end.

The Two Ways a Roof Gets Shortened

Pressure is the first. A wand on asphalt blasts the granule layer off in a stripe that looks clean for a month and then ages faster than the shingles around it, and on a steep roof it also drives water up under the courses. The second is walking a wet, moss-covered slope at all, which cracks shingles underfoot and is a real fall risk on the pitched village roofs. A third habit worth dropping: scraping moss off dry. The mat comes away with a layer of the shingle attached.

Timing It Right

Spring and fall are the two windows we book most, though a roof can be treated any month the shingles are not frozen or snow-covered. Spring catches the growth before a summer of humidity thickens it. Fall pairs naturally with a gutter clearing, since the same trees that shade the slope fill the runs below it. A roof under heavy limbs is worth a look every three years; an open township roof can usually wait five.