# Forum Home Renovation Roofing  Colorbond roof fungus cleaning costs

## Bundaboy

G'day all, this is my first post so please be gentle with me ;-) 
At the ripe old age of 58 I have (reluctantly) purchased my first home and have finally been exposed to the delights (cough cough) of home maintenance.
I am a retired engineer with a strong DIY bent so do not mind doing most of my own repairs/alterations/improvements etc but with my age/arthritis and the fact I would have to do it alone, that whilst getting up on the roof is not impossible (I have done it recently to attend to a TV antenna mast head amplifier) but somewhat difficult (actually I find getting up easy - but getting down again....). 
My house is 11 years old and I have been here about a year and during that time I have noticed growing dark patches around the ridge capping - and whilst cleaning the gutters recently noticed a fair amount of lichen. 
 I have looked into how clean it and feel that in a pinch I can probably do it myself but have been advised by neighbours to have it done professionally. 
I was wondering if anyone could give me some idea as to what costs I would likely be put to in having it done? The roof is fairly standard on a single story 4 bedroom house. 
Any help would be appreciated. 
Cheers, 
Gary

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## johnc

I recently had a price indication of $800 from a local cleaner for a heavy infestion of green muck, not sure how that equates to normal prices.

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## Bundaboy

Thanks John, at least it gets me in the ball park

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## Moondog55

Is lichen harmful to the roofing? 
i know that over the long term it produces acids that eat away at rocks, but i thought in the short term ( decades not millenia ) it was not a structural problem.

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## Bundaboy

Possibly not but it IS very unsightly...

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## shauck

I hate climbing down off the roof too. Definitely prefer someone else to go up there.

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## Oldsaltoz

Our roof is an off white and shows every tiny mark, last year after the wet season we has a lot of dark areas appearing, on investigation it was mould. 
I used Wet and forget, sprayed on with standard garden spray pack. Now the roof fantastic, cost aroud $90.00 and an hours work. 
Good luck. :Smilie:

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## Johning

> Possibly not but it IS very unsightly...

  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and is influenced by the culture you live in. 
I grew up in England and to have lichen on the roof was considered an indicator of high status. Lichen does not grow if the air is polluted so if you lived in an industrial city no lichen would grow on the roof. If you were rich enough to live in the country then the air was clean enough for the lichen to grow.     

> Is lichen harmful to the roofing? 
> i know that over the long term it produces acids that eat away at rocks, but i thought in the short term ( decades not millenia ) it was not a structural problem.

  Roofs : Tile roofs 
Quote from above.  _"Moss or lichen growth: This is common in clay, concrete and slate tiles especially as the tiles weather with age. Cut back overhanging trees to reduce moisture. Lichen doesnt damage the roof but you may want to remove it for aesthetic reasons. You should remove it if it is blocking valleys. Moss shouldnt be left as it attracts moisture. "_

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## Bundaboy

> I hate climbing down off the roof too. Definitely prefer someone else to go up there.

  Me too - I just don't like paying them so much for doing so... ;-)

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## Bundaboy

Damn strange, one of my posts goes to moderation and the next goes straight through what gives? Also I am not receiving notifications when someone replies even though I am subscribed - anyone know why that might be?

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## Bundaboy

> Our roof is an off white and shows every tiny mark, last year after the wet season we has a lot of dark areas appearing, on investigation it was mould. 
> I used Wet and forget, sprayed on with standard garden spray pack. Now the roof fantastic, cost aroud $90.00 and an hours work. 
> Good luck.

  Thanks for that - yes mine is as well (off white) and does also (show every mark). 
Did you have lichen as well? - I have found that bleach works ok on the black mould but not so well on the lichen. 
I have used the garden sprayer as well but find I am having trouble getting a good coverage from off the top of the ladder - did you get up on the roof? At this stage I think I am making things worse rather than better. I have a telescopic broom but so far have just managed to make a splotchy job of it. 
It seems to me to be only a 1 or 2 hour job if one gets up on the roof so I wonder why the pros charge so much? 
BTW wet and forget is only available by phone or internet isn't it? (i.e. what used to be mail order) - I tried that Off in 30 seconds stuff from Bunnings - useless.

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## Oldsaltoz

> Thanks for that - yes mine is as well (off white) and does also (show every mark). 
> Did you have lichen as well? - I have found that bleach works ok on the black mould but not so well on the lichen. 
> I have used the garden sprayer as well but find I am having trouble getting a good coverage from off the top of the ladder - did you get up on the roof? At this stage I think I am making things worse rather than better. I have a telescopic broom but so far have just managed to make a splotchy job of it. 
> It seems to me to be only a 1 or 2 hour job if one gets up on the roof so I wonder why the pros charge so much? 
> BTW wet and forget is only available by phone or internet isn't it? (i.e. what used to be mail order) - I tried that Off in 30 seconds stuff from Bunnings - useless.

  No Lichen as such but I suspect I had a few spots that were developing some. I would not use bleach for fear of damaging the paint if left on. 
Yes I did get up on the roof, when spraying wet n forget it needs to be at the point of running down the roof to get the right dose, but it's not a long job if you start at the top and work down. 
I purchased mine from a local store, go the web site and search for a local outlet. 
Not surprised you got a blotchy result, being so far away from the end would mean some variation in distribution. 
Good luck.   :Smilie:

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## shauck

> Me too - I just don't like paying them so much for doing so... ;-)

  How much are they asking for the job and how long does it take them? Do they need any special safety gear for your roof? If it's many hundreds, I would be doing it myself. If you do it yourself, good to have someone around, especially holding the ladder when getting up and down. Even better, if you can secure the ladder somehow, much safer.

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## Bundaboy

> How much are they asking for the job and how long does it take them? Do they need any special safety gear for your roof? If it's many hundreds, I would be doing it myself. If you do it yourself, good to have someone around, especially holding the ladder when getting up and down. Even better, if you can secure the ladder somehow, much safer.

  I asked for a ball park figure and they quoted $700-800 - I reckon that's way to much for something that should only take a couple of hours at most. 
I suppose my biggest problem is that I don't have anyone to help - but for much less than that much money I can buy a harness etc. I need to source one of those eye-bolt gizmos that are attached to the top of the roof. I have extension arms for my ladder which I have found to be extremely useful for stability and keeping the ladder of the gutters.

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## johnc

> Thanks for that - yes mine is as well (off white) and does also (show every mark). 
> Did you have lichen as well? - I have found that bleach works ok on the black mould but not so well on the lichen. 
> I have used the garden sprayer as well but find I am having trouble getting a good coverage from off the top of the ladder - did you get up on the roof? At this stage I think I am making things worse rather than better. I have a telescopic broom but so far have just managed to make a splotchy job of it. 
> It seems to me to be only a 1 or 2 hour job if one gets up on the roof so I wonder why the pros charge so much? 
> BTW wet and forget is only available by phone or internet isn't it? (i.e. what used to be mail order) - I tried that Off in 30 seconds stuff from Bunnings - useless.

  
Depends on the build up, ours has just been demossed and the time taken was 18 hours.

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## Bundaboy

Good grief! what on earth could take 18 hours? What kind of roof is it? With the stuff I have colorbond recommend applying bleach with a soft bristle broom and leaving for only 3-5 minutes before rinsing off. (see attachment). 
OTOH I have that green moss stuff on the ground around my BBQ and it is pretty difficult to remove - again that "30 second" stuff doesn't work but bleach does.  TB-27.pdf

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## johnc

Terracotta Tile with 30+ years of build up, Wet and Forget barely touched it as did a trial run of bleach, in places the lichen would have been 20mm thick and seemed to have put down roots, even now there are bits of black that have remained but a spray of something lethal should have the ability to knock back any prospect of regrowth for awhile.

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## Bundaboy

> Terracotta Tile with 30+ years of build up, Wet and Forget barely touched it as did a trial run of bleach, in places the lichen would have been 20mm thick and seemed to have put down roots, even now there are bits of black that have remained but a spray of something lethal should have the ability to knock back any prospect of regrowth for awhile.

  Wow, I can see how that much build up would take a bit more effort, yes. What was your motivation for the cleaning? Is it detrimental to the tiles or just unsightly? 
I assume then that you had it done professionally? Can you give me an idea of the cost? I have been toying with the idea of getting the roof cleaner to come and have a look at it on the off chance he would give me a lower price. 
I am told that wet and forget has a residual effect that prevents regrowth over a long period - not sure if that's true or not.

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## johnc

> Wow, I can see how that much build up would take a bit more effort, yes. What was your motivation for the cleaning? Is it detrimental to the tiles or just unsightly? 
> I assume then that you had it done professionally? Can you give me an idea of the cost? I have been toying with the idea of getting the roof cleaner to come and have a look at it on the off chance he would give me a lower price. 
> I am told that wet and forget has a residual effect that prevents regrowth over a long period - not sure if that's true or not.

  It was unsightly plus we had put on solar panels and it was starting to appear on the panels, just specks, that washed off but that was the trigger to get it cleaned. We gave it a bit of a go with a 1450psi machine which we use for general cleaning but it wasn't able to make much headway (plus a bit to slippery without a harness) so we decided to use a professional bloke which was cheaper than buying a harness and a new heavy machine. Cost was $800 the sprayer also replaced a couple of existing broken tiles plus a couple more he broke himself, the deal was we would clean the gutters afterwards we probably put about 100 litres of moss in the compost with plenty more that would have ended up down the drain or on the ground. Initially the cost seemed high but after he'd finished it seemed pretty good value it was a cow of a job. Tiles aren't the easiest as you have all those cracks and crevices plus the possibility of flooding the roof space through any failures in flashing or back spray up the tiles. There will still be residual spores that will have been missed so a follow up will be a given, iron roofs are a lot easier to target all buildup with a strong possibility you will eliminate what is up there.

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## Bundaboy

Thank you very much for that, it is very good information. I think $800 for all that work was very reasonable, but it shows me that $800 for the comparatively little I need done to be definitely over the top (even for a roof ;-)). 
I can certainly appreciate how a tiled roof would be considerably more difficult to clean as well.

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