Professional Roof Cleaning & Moss Removal

Why roofs round here grow so much moss

The Rossendale valley gets well over a metre of rain a year, and Burnley, Blackburn, Bury and Bolton are not far behind. Add a north-facing slope, a few trees and the concrete interlocking tiles that most houses built after the 1960s have, and moss has everything it wants. Concrete tiles are porous, they hold water, and they weather to a rough surface that moss roots straight into. That is why the estates in Haslingden, Rawtenstall, Ramsbottom and Tottington go green a lot faster than the slate terraces in town.

Slate and clay roofs on the older terraces in Bacup, Accrington, Padiham and Darwen get it too, just more slowly. On those the problem is usually lichen and the moss that collects along the tile edges, in the valleys and behind the chimney, where it sits in the wet and never dries out.

What moss actually does to a roof

Moss is a sponge. It holds water against the tile, and in a Pennine winter that water freezes and thaws over and over, which is how tiles end up spalling and cracking. Heavy clumps lift the tile edges so wind-driven rain gets underneath. Then the moss slides off in a storm, blocks the gutter, and the overflow runs down the wall and into the brickwork. Most of the damp lofts we get asked about started on the roof, not in the loft.

Cleaning it off and killing the spores is a fraction of the cost of the repairs it leads to, and the roof lasts longer for it. It is a maintenance job, the same as clearing the gutters, and it does not need doing every year: our roof cleans carry a 2-year no-moss guarantee, and most customers get well beyond that before they call us again.

Soft wash roof cleaning, not pressure washing

You will find people in Lancashire who will pressure wash a roof for less. Please do not let them. High pressure strips the surface off concrete tiles, drives water under the laps and into the loft, and blasts the moss off without touching the roots, so it is back within the year. We do it the slow way: moss scraped and steamed off from a scaffold tower and pole, nobody walking on the tiles, then the whole roof treated with our DDAC 50% biocide. The biocide keeps working for weeks and the weather rinses the dead growth away, so the roof looks better in month three than it did the day we left.

Because we bring our own tower and poles, there is no scaffolding hire in the price. The job on a normal semi takes a day, a big detached or a farmhouse two. The gutters are cleared as part of it and everything that came off the roof is swept and hosed from the paths, drive and drains before we go.

What roof cleaning costs and what changes the price

Three things set the price: the size and pitch of the roof, how heavy the moss is, and access. A steep roof on a three-storey town house in Blackburn takes longer than a bungalow in Fulwood. A roof that has never been cleaned takes longer than one we treated four years ago. Send us a couple of photos from the ground and your postcode and you will get a fixed price, usually the same day, with nothing added on site. If you want a comparison, we are happy for you to read all 115 of our Google reviews before you decide, because most of them mention the price.

Where we clean roofs

We are based in Haslingden and do most of our roof cleaning within about 30 miles: Rossendale, Burnley, Blackburn, Bury, Bolton, Preston, Rochdale, Oldham, Salford and Manchester. If you are looking for roof cleaning near you and your town is not on that list, ring us anyway. If it is in Lancashire or Greater Manchester we almost certainly cover it. We also clean render, gutters and driveways, so if the whole front of the house needs doing we can do it in one visit.