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dabber · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute of America

How do you clean painted roofs

RCIA Founder

dabber wrote:
Did my first waterproofed , painted flat tile roof , (white) today , the love at 50% with borax and tsp , gain , sprayed the roof twice it , unlimited dwell time , the roof cleanned up 50% not great , the lips of the tile still had semi - heavy stains on them , not accecptable , so I had to get the surface cleanner up there , and as fast as I could move it cleanned right off , looked like new again , is this the way we have to clean these type of roofs , location south Fl thanks for the input , Dabber

No! We never ever pressure wash any tile roofs, but before I forget never ever use any TSP on a painted tile roof again (It can dull some paints)

It is not unusual for a very very dirty tile roof to take several coats of the mix to clean up, and then it sometimes takes a good rain or 2 to look their best.

We very very very seldom go to a 50 percent tile roof cleaning mix.

r u sure you are not buying old, weak, SH ?

dabber · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute of America

Chris Thank you for answering ( the only one ) the sh is good strong and fresh , it just seems that the mold and mildew stains just dont want to come off I think you were right a couple of good hard rains might have done it , because the surface cleanner , I could move as fast as I could because it was so loose but you know the coustomer does not want to hear that , they were not even in town , but great people recomended us and I wanted to give them what they wanted to see when they got home in a couple of days , Chris if you read this have you done many of these there are alot of them in se fl near the coast mostly , where people are trying to save there cement tile roof by waterproofing them thanks Dabber

RCIA Founder

dabber wrote:
Chris Thank you for answering ( the only one ) the sh is good strong and fresh , it just seems that the mold and mildew stains just dont want to come off I think you were right a couple of good hard rains might have done it , because the surface cleanner , I could move as fast as I could because it was so loose but you know the coustomer does not want to hear that , they were not even in town , but great people recomended us and I wanted to give them what they wanted to see when they got home in a couple of days , Chris if you read this have you done many of these there are alot of them in se fl near the coast mostly , where people are trying to save there cement tile roof by waterproofing them thanks Dabber

OMG! That may be THE Problem!

It is very very possible that the waterproofing is effecting the cleaning ability of the SH !!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you please try to find out WHAT they are using for waterproofing, so I can find an MSDS Sheet and see what the heck may be going on ?

Stay Clean · Guest

I have done a lot of these painted/waterproofed flat and barrel tile roofs in a 900 home 55+ community. Its either a paint or elastomeric coating. From my experience, the GM sticks to or seems to penetrate the paint and is a lot harder to remove when compared to a non-painted tile roof. Also, the mix we use tends to leave a yellowish color on the tile if not rinsed off. The yellowish color doesn't come off after a heavy rain or by spraying more mix either. I can actually ride around and see who had their roofs cleaned chemically and who hasn't by the yellow color left behind by other cleaners. I think the paint soaks it up and the sun bakes it on there. What I do after spraying the chemicals is take my 40 degree softwash tip (I have the 4 tip combo), stick it at the end of my pressure wand, and use the pressure washer to rinse the front of the roof to make the customer happy. It takes the yellow film right off and leaves the roof white. The only reason I use the machine is to speed up the process vs using a garden hose. Its not about pressure, its about water flow and having the fan spray. When you use a #20 or #30 tip in a 4gpm machine there is very, very low pressure, like low enough for me to put my hand right in front of the tip while spraying. Hopefully the pics below give you a better idea of what I'm saying. And yes, those are stripes on the roof created by a surface cleaner... but not from me... previous roof cleaners did that.

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"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"