Managing Home Maintenance Costs

Consumers living in areas with lots of moisture and the little sun will sometimes find black algae growing on the shingles of their roofs. It can turn a beautiful roof into an ugly stained roof that just does not look great even in the hot sun. Once it starts it just continues to spread leaving an unsightly mess on your roof. Fortunately, there is a way for Removing Dark Stains from Your Roof.

Removing Dark Stains from Your Roof

The first step is to remove any debris that may have collected on your roof. This includes moss that may have built up in areas where there is a great deal of shade. The best way to remove this debris is to use your garden hose and spray water on the area at an angle from about three feet away. Consumers must be careful to not dislodge granules from the shingles. Once all of the moss is removed, apply an oxygen bleach mixture to the areas needing treatment.

The best time to apply the oxygen bleach mixture is on a cloudy day. You need to keep the area wet for at least 45 minutes which can be difficult in full sunlight. Mix the oxygen bleach with water following the instructions provided.

Consumers should start in a small area. Make sure it is inconspicuous to make sure that this solution will work on the algae on your roof. Once you have confirmed that it does the job of getting rid of the algae and it has not harmed your roof. Apply the solution to the rest of the roof where the algae can be seen. You will notice a remarkable improvement in most cases.

Consumers may have to hire a professional roofer to go up on the roof to apply the solution. Avoid ladders of all kinds if you are afraid of heights or unstable on a ladder or being on a roof.

My Shingles have a black stain on them. We wanted to know what causes asphalt shingles to stain like this? It is very unsightly when you look at our roof from a distance. The shingles were advertised as 25 year shingles and this is only year 14! They appear to be wearing normally. There is no curling at the ends or abnormal loss of the grit. We also are well ventilated so the attic does not overheat in the summer. It is unsightly and since we live at the end of the street, everyone sees it when they drive down our street. We wanted to know what was causing this and what we could do about it?

What Causes Asphalt Shingles to Stain

Turns out that we live in an algae prone area. If you live in a humid area, there is a good chance that you will encounter this black algae on your roof. It is not harmful to the roof and will not cause your shingles to age prematurely.

The stains are not everywhere on the roof. Anytime there is a metal flashing or air vent, the area just below them are free of the black stain. This is due to the metal from these items being washed onto the roof in very small amounts.

You can wash the roof with chemicals to kill the algae, however it usually returns the following year. You may as well save your money. When it is time to replace your roof purchase algae resistant shingles to avoid this problem.

There are several products on the market specifically designed to remove algae stains from a roof. These include Wet & Forget and Moss Out. A mixture of trisodium phosphate (TSP), bleach, and water will also remove stains.

Oxygen bleach lightens stains as well and is less harmful to the environment, but it doesn’t produce as immediate or dramatic an effect as chlorine bleach. Be careful that you do not damage the roof each time you walk across it while applying the chemicals.

For more information about removing stains, click here.

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My roof has black stains all over it on several different parts of the roof. We are thinking about warranty claims for roof shingles. However the industry has a really bad reputation for warranty support. A neighbor has curling shingles after only 7 years. Apparently he has to join a class action suit to get any money back. Even at that it will be minimal in terns of cash. It will not come anywhere close to replacing the roof. With this information, we think there is little chance of any help from the shingle manufacture for us. They do not pay for installation under the warranty so you are really out a great deal of money. It seems that the black stains on our roof is caused by algae and there is not a lot that can be done about it.

Warranty Claims for Roof Shingles – Algae

One solution is to wash the roof with a chemical wash. However you need to take proper precautions to avoid damaging the roof further. In addition there is the cost of the chemical and finding someone who will go up on the roof to apply the chemical.

Our roof is 14 years old and it supposedly has another 11 years to go. They were 25 year shingles. The shingles look physically ok, it is just this black coloring on the roof in specific areas.

We took pictures, had them printed and filled in this long report. I think there is less than a 10% chance that the shingle company will do anything about this.

Update: about two months later, we received a replay. Sure enough they denied the claim and indicated that this is a common mold that forms on many roofs. We have since noticed that many homes in our area have the same problem.

There is basically nothing we can do at this point, so I guess we just live with it.

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