Homeowner Les Hickman and Accurate Roof Cleaning owner Ron George are in a battle over bushes.

Hickman hired George to clean the tile roof on his Cape Coral home.

Hickman said George did an excellent job. There was just one problem. The runoff from the tile roof cleaning chemicals George used killed the plants around the house.

Accurate Roofing “advertises low pressure tile roof cleaning and not having to walk on my tiled roof. In other words, lots and lots of bleach,” Hickman wrote in an email. “All he would have had to say is keep your landscape watered down for a week or 10 days and there would be no issues.”

George admitted the tile roof cleaning solution he used might have killed one of the plants and likely damaged the others but that’s because Hickman didn’t follow the rules after the cleaning, he said.

George said he told Hickman what to do if it rained, as it did after the tile roof cleaning, and Hickman didn’t do it.

Hickman left a “threatening message” on his answering machine, George said, claiming he would tell everyone Accurate Roof killed his plants.

In business for 11 years, George said he’s only had two complaints, both in the last 18 months.

“His error was not listening,” George said. “But I still want to make him happy.”

George wouldn’t reveal exactly what he used on Hickman’s tile roof, although bleach is one of the ingredients.

“Everyone wants my formula,” George said. “I’m the inventor of not walking on tile roofs.”

The plants weren’t all dead, George said. All lost their leaves but he cut them back and during the rainy season they’ll come back, he contends. And he offered to replace one plant in the front of the house. The $600 Hickman wants to replace the landscaping, “is way out of proportion,” he said.

If the tile roof cleaning had been done during rainy season, George explained, runoff wouldn’t have been an issue. The rains would have diluted the chemicals.

But Hickman’s tile roof was cleaned during the spring. And George has a complicated watering schedule based on the intensity of rain, the gutters and the downspout placement relative to the landscaping, all of which he said he explained to Hickman.

My suggestion to George was he print those instructions so customers know what to do. If they ignore the advice, it’s their own fault and George can’t be held accountable. Or since heavy rain dilutes roof cleaning chemicals, maybe he should just tell people to water heavy for a week or so.

George agreed it would be a good idea to give customers written instructions on how to protect their landscaping after a roof cleaning and stated he will do that from now on.

That’s great. But it’s not going to solve Hickman’s issue, which I believe George is responsible for. Many of the plants are dead and others so badly damaged I don’t know if they will ever look good again. So if George believes Hickman’s estimate for replacement is too high, he should get his own estimates. But I believe he should pay to have the plants replaced.