Roof cleaning in Lakeland
How a roof is soft washed does not change from one town to the next. What changes in Lakeland is the order the work has to happen in, and how much of the result depends on things that are not the roof at all.
The roof goes first
Everything that comes off a roof runs down the walls below it, which is the reason to clean a roof before a house wash rather than after. In Lakeland there is a second reason for that order. Where irrigation runs off a well, the water carries iron, and that leaves a rust-coloured mark on walls and driveway edges that is a different problem from algae — it does not answer to the roof solution and needs its own treatment. If the roof is washed after the walls have been dealt with, the runoff lands on the surface somebody just spent time on. The order is not a scheduling preference.
Older housing, painted wood, and less margin for error
Lakeland's housing really is older than its county's: the Census puts the median year built at 1983 for the city against 1992 for Polk County, and 5.6% of the city's homes date from 1939 or earlier. What that tells you is about the walls, not the roof — the Dixieland district's National Register nomination records its houses as wood-walled on brick piers, built between about 1905 and 1940. Old painted wood is exactly where the argument against pressure stops being theoretical. A shingle that is already well into its life has less granule left to lose, and taking more off does not just look patchy — it takes years off what is left. On an older roof we look at what the surface is actually doing before quoting rather than pricing it off the square footage. If the roof is too far along for a wash to be worth doing, that is a better thing to hear at the estimate than afterwards.
Shade is what decides how long it lasts
The organism that makes the black streaks needs to stay damp, so the slope that dries slowest is the slope that goes dark first and goes dark again soonest. A limb lying over the roof, or a wide canopy on the shaded side of a house, keeps that slope wet for hours after a sunny one has dried. It is worth knowing before the work rather than after, because it changes what a clean roof is worth to you: the slope that never really dries is where the growth has what it needs to come back. We will tell you which slopes on your roof are the problem while we are looking at it. Trimming back what is over them takes away the shade that keeps them wet.
Common questions
- Can you do the roof and the house on the same visit?
- That is the sensible way to do it, and it is what we would suggest — roof first, walls after. Ask for both when you request the estimate so the quote covers the whole thing rather than half of it.
- My driveway has rust marks as well as green. Same job?
- Different job, and it is worth separating them. Green is organic and comes off with the same kind of chemistry as the roof. Rust-coloured marks from iron in irrigation water need a different treatment, and the wrong product on the wrong surface can etch it. Mention both when you ask and we will look at each.
- Do you clean commercial roofs on the north side of town?
- Metal panel and low-slope roofs are a different surface from shingle, and both come with their own risks — coating damage on one, standing water on the other. We look at those in person before quoting rather than working from photos.
Get a free estimate
Tell us what needs doing. We will come out and look, or quote from photos if that is easier.
Step 3 of 4
When suits you?
Estimates are free, with no obligation and no pressure. We can quote in person or straight over text — whichever is easier for you. Send a photo and we can often price it from there. Send it over and we get back to you within 4 hours.