Roof Cleaning in Romeo

The rooflines inside the Romeo Historic District were framed for snow to slide off: steep gables, cross gables, dormers and the occasional tower, most of them now covered in asphalt shingle over a frame from the 1800s. Under the canopy that shades the blocks around Main St and St. Clair St, the north and east slopes stay damp until midday, and that is where the black streaking starts. The streaks are a cyanobacteria that feeds on the limestone filler in the shingle, and the shade side always carries it first.

Moss is the second problem, and the trees cause it directly. Leaves and seed collect in the valleys and behind the chimneys, hold water, and moss roots into the granule layer beneath them. Where a branch overhangs a slope, the moss line follows it. The 20th-century houses between the historic core and the village limits out toward 32 Mile Rd have lower pitches and fewer trees, so they streak later, but the process is the same once it begins. On the township parcels past the line, roofs near the orchards pick up a fine dust that feeds the same growth.

The treatment is a soft wash tuned for shingle. A solution goes on at low pressure, kills the streaking organism and the moss at the root, and the roof brightens over the following weeks as rain carries the dead material off. Nothing is scrubbed and nothing is blasted, which is the method shingle manufacturers describe in their own care guidance. Roof cleaning starts at $450, is quoted by roof size and pitch, and the written estimate arrives within 24 hours.

How Old Roofs Get Ruined

Pressure washing a shingle roof strips the granules that protect the asphalt and takes years off its life in one afternoon; on a roof from the 1990s it can void what remains of the warranty. Walking a steep, mossy slope is the other risk, both to the person and to the brittle older shingles that crack underfoot. Scraping moss dry tears granules out with it. And a roof treatment done without plant protection sends runoff into the foundation beds that most village houses keep full. Our roofs are treated from the eaves, at low pressure, with the downspouts controlled, and if a roof is metal, slate or wood rather than asphalt, the method changes and we say so before quoting.

Timing It Right

Roof treatment works from late spring into October, on days warm enough for the solution to work and dry enough to keep it on the shingle. Late summer, once the Romeo Peach Festival has passed and before the leaves come down, is the best stretch for the shaded houses in the village. Pair it with a fall gutter clearing on the same visit, since the leaf load that follows is what feeds next year's moss.