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First off, watch my Youtube videos and see the difference between softwashing at 60 psi and power washing at 3000 to 4000 psi. Go to WWW.Youtube.COM and search for - Bergman Roof Cleaning

There are 2 ways to clean roofs - power washing and soft washing. Many roofing manufacturers specify the soft wash method, so they don't have to replace roofs prematurely, due to wear and tear from pressure washing equipment use and workers having to walk on basically every square foot of the roofing!.

With soft washing very little, if any of your roof will be walked on. Some MFG say pressure washing a roof can void it's warranty. Presuure cleaning is done by walking on your entire roof and blasting the appearance of living black algae off with a 3000 to 4000 psi power washer and of course, in turn, blowing that living algae onto everything surrounding your house. It also leaves living invisible black algae spores coating your entire roof, which will continue growing and will be visibly black again in 1 to 1 1/2 years.

Mainly because pressure washing machines have a downstream chemical injector that is able to make an average of 10% chemical to 90% water mixture. The only cleaning chemical that is used for roof cleaning, that actually works and is specified by the manufacturers of roofing, is bleach. 10% bleach is not nearly strong enough to kill off this very tough black algae. Red hot roofs, here in SW Florida can't kill it, nor winter temperatures that drop down to the teens from time to time. No soaps, detergents and certainly not "Gimmick"

<P>Spray Then Forget Where Your Return Receipt Is</P> 4 months later. 4 Months is the average time all these "Gimmick" roof cleaning products say it will take them to work {UNLESS YOU USE A PRESSURE WASHER ON YOUR ROOF AFTER APPLYING THE GIMMICK LIQUIDS. YOU CAN SPRAY LIQUID BABY SHAMPOO OR WATER ON A ROOF AND WITH A BLASTING POWER WASHER-IT LOOKS CLEAN!}

These are made of WHO KNOWS WHAT? - they are called PROPRIETARY mixtures [ so like KFC they don't have to tell you what's in it! ]  But, I have tested a few on my back roof shingles and it turned them a brownish yellow in a few months, but were unable to kill off the algae. I know because I sprayed a 2' pattern down the roof with the Gimmick products and also a 2' path with a 25% bleach 75% water only mix and the bleach area came out like new and didn't grow black algae back for over 3 years. The SPRAY AND FALL OFF YOUR ROOF [ LOL ] product and 2 similarly advertised products, grew black algae back after 1 year - in the meantime, they were ugly brownish / yellowish strips, that looked as bad as the black algae did in the 1st place!

Pressure used on a shingled roof, will also blow a large % of the color / protective granules off of your shingles and loosen the tabs, cutting years off the life of your roof.

The roofing manufacturers specifically say DO NOT PRESSURE WASH shingled roofs and not to use over 1200 psi on tile. Most pressure washing machines are a minimum of 2500 to 4000 psi. Failing roofers will sometimes advertise roof cleaning. One locally says with "NO CHEMICALS-JUST WATER"!

Roofers make a lot more $ than roof cleaners, so my belief is that they just want to get up on your roof to sell you repairs or new roofs. A REAL-HONEST-ROOFER WOULD KNOW HOW THE MANUFACTURERS SPECIFY CHEMICALS THAT MUST BE USED TO KILL ALGAE AND ABOUT NOT USING THE PRESSURE MENTIONED! READ FROM THE MANUFACTURERS HERE-IT'S AN EASY READ AND I HAVE THEIR LINKS READY TO CLICK! http://www.bergmanpressurewashing.com/Manufacturer_Specifics.html

On tile, because the roof has to be walked on everywhere, the amount of broken / cracked tiles will be high and only if the worker is very honest, will you ever know it. Many just kick them back together and they are hard or impossible to see from the ground. Pressure also often blows pieces of your soft ridge cap cement off into space! This soft cement is always cracked up and chunks can easily be blown away. Then there is the glazing that comes on most tiles, after each power wash job, you will have less and less glazing left and your roof will be a dull, faded example of what it was prior to being beat up a couple of times with a pressure cleaning machine! Even worse, is a "surface cleaner" [ Often called-by non-professionals, a SPINNER, JET CLEANER, or just a DISC + other names.

It has SET jets that barely reach the valley portions of barrel tile, but blast the top rounded portions unbelievably hard! You can see me using a yellow surface cleaner [1st photo ] One of the pictures, shows a silver colored surface cleaner destroying a shingled roof. { It's not me! } Attached photos. These are actually Flat Surface Cleaners, originally made specifically for flat cement-driveways, walks and parking lots only!  I use them for that proper purpose and as long as the surface is hard, flat, cement, they are GREAT!

Watch video here -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKfF48H3niM

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