Roof cleaning in Poinciana
Washing a roof works the same in Poinciana as anywhere else. What is different is that here an association document compiled from the recorded restrictions tells the owner to pressure wash, clean and otherwise remove stains and discoloration, names the roof among the surfaces, and so names a method that the shingle makers' own association says never to use on shingle.
The section names the roof, and it names pressure
Section 12.6.3 of the Association of Poinciana Villages Design Control Board Criteria, effective 3/18/21, puts three verbs on the lot owner — "Pressure wash, clean and otherwise remove" every stain, mold, mildew and other discoloration on the home and its ancillary structures — and the surfaces it goes on to list include the roof. The wording is the document's, not ours: across twenty-seven pages the words "pressure wash" turn up exactly twice, once for paved surfaces and once here. Set that beside the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association, the shingle makers' own body, which prohibits pressure washing an asphalt shingle roof outright — it costs the shingle its granules and, ARMA says, likely brings on premature roof failure. ARMA's separate page on algae discoloration rules out brushes and brooms as well. Two instruments, one roof, opposite instructions. Read the clause as written, though, and it is three verbs and an outcome, and the outcome is reachable without the first verb. Whether that satisfies the board is the board's to say, and not ours.
What 12.6.5 asks for, and what a wash can hand over
The clause that governs repairing and replacing your roof is 12.6.5, and the repairing and replacing is not cleaning work. It requires owners to repair, restore and replace all missing, broken or deteriorating roofs, shingles or other components, "and ensure that such roof(s) are consistent in appearance" — a repair obligation with a matching requirement bolted onto it. A wash reaches 12.6.3, the discoloration clause. It cannot do the repairing and replacing that 12.6.5 requires, and whether a cleaned roof is "consistent in appearance" is the board's to say: the criteria do not define it. Section 12.6.3's words are stains, mold, mildew and other discolorations; neither clause says where a particular growth belongs, and that reading is the board's to make, not ours. Discoloration comes off. Missing, broken or lifting components do not, and no wash puts back granules that are already gone in patches. Nor does the guidance offer an add-on to keep growth from coming back: ARMA does not recommend adding zinc or copper strips to a roof already up, and for tile the Tile Roofing Industry Alliance states that no coating applied on the job is known to have a long-term preventive effect on regrowth.
One sentence, a whole list of roofs, and trade guidance that differs by material
Section 7.3.5 lists the roofing the board may consider: "Asphalt or fiberglass shingles, wood shake, slate, tile, shake, standing seam metal, cement and other materials may be considered by the DCB," and it bars roll roofing on any residential or ancillary structure. Section 12.6.3 does not sort that list; the same obligation lands on every roof in it. The trade bodies speak to different roofs, and what they say about pressure differs. ARMA forbids pressurised cleaning on asphalt shingle. The Tile Roofing Industry Alliance permits professional low-intensity pressure washing on concrete tile, and separately says that mildew, algae and moss grow not on the tile but on the dust and organic material accumulated on it. That same alliance's maintenance guide warns that foot-traffic damage may void a warranty, and it tells homeowners to take tile roof cleaning to a roofing contractor rather than to a cleaning company. Better you read that here than find it later. Slate, wood shake and standing seam metal are on the board's list too, and nothing cited on this page speaks to them: the ARMA material is about asphalt shingle and the tile alliance's is about tile.
Common questions
- The criteria tell me to pressure wash the roof. Do you pressure wash it?
- Not on an asphalt shingle roof. Our roof cleaning is a soft wash, set out on our roof cleaning page: a cleaning solution applied at low pressure, left to work, and rinsed off gently. What the board makes of that is between you and the board.
- Section 12.6.5 says I have to replace deteriorating shingles. Can a wash put that off?
- No, and better to hear it now. A wash takes discoloration off a surface. It does not put back a missing shingle, and it does not replace granules that are already gone in patches. Those are two clauses making two different demands, and cleaning answers only one of them. If what your roof needs is the other one, that is a roofer's job. Estimates are free.
- My roof is tile and my neighbour's is shingle. Is it the same job?
- One sentence in one document covers you both, and the two trade bodies split you apart. Shingle takes no pressure washing; the method ARMA describes ends in a low-pressure rinse. Concrete tile may take low-intensity pressure applied by a professional, and the tile alliance warns that foot-traffic damage may void a tile warranty. Same obligation, two methods, two sets of risk. The criteria are a spec sheet for neither of them, so the method has to follow the roof; whether the board is satisfied is the board's to say.
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