Power Washing and Roof Cleaning Forum

Dave · Approved Exterior Cleaner

What color are these shingles

John Aloisio · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Either white three tab or brown

Chesapeake · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Im going with light brown, such as desert tan or cedar.

Andy Hinson · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Chesapeake wrote:
Im going with light brown, such as desert tan or cedar.

Me too

SprayWash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Chesapeake wrote:
Im going with light brown, such as desert tan or cedar.

Same here!

Patrick G · Approved Exterior Cleaner

It sure does look brown but I think we are being setup so I am going to say Grey and red combo. It's amazing how long people will wait to pay attention with whats going on up there. There is def. going to be granuel loss on that one.

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Brian C Jackson wrote:
Light brown or light cedar color... I thing it is called weathered wood.

Now thats 3 colors!

-- Edited by Art O on Friday 11th of October 2013 11:08:28 AM

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I Say white

Brian C Jackson · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Light brown or light cedar color... I thing it is called weathered wood.

Zach Maynard · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I'll go with black. Or pink....

Dave · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Yeah, they are light brown. Just amazing how bad people let their roofs get. And, yes there was some granule loss. There was spots on this roof where the granules were missing, but no lichen at those spots. Leads me to believe that when the lichen has removed all the nutrients it can from where it is growing, they die and fall off.

Patrick G · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Dave that's an interesting idea about why the Lichen lets go. Do you rinse your roofs when you are done?

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

It's either cedar or "moss lichen potpourri". I highly doubt lichen falls off because it removes all the existing nutrients. I'm in London at the moment. The concrete sidewalks are riddled with lichen and have been for decades.

waxman18324 · Founding Member Rest in Peace

Eric, It's time to take your operation international and take care of the lichen. It must be slippery as hell.

Dave, how long between photos?

Hank

Chesapeake · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Eric Schnaible wrote:
The concrete sidewalks are riddled with lichen and have been for decades.

The concrete sidewalks are also loaded with limestone.

Diamond Roof Cleaning · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Dave wrote:
Yeah, they are light brown. Just amazing how bad people let their roofs get. And, yes there was some granule loss. There was spots on this roof where the granules were missing, but no lichen at those spots. Leads me to believe that when the lichen has removed all the nutrients it can from where it is growing, they die and fall off.

I would believe that the moss cannot dig into the asphalt behind the granules.

Dave · Approved Exterior Cleaner

This roof we rinsed. The owner was putting the home up for sale, and wanted it clean right away. We do offer rinsing if they would like it. It is an option (for a price) that the home owner can choose.. As far as lichen on the sidewalk, yeas it will be there for generations because the lichen has an endless supply of limestone in the cement. With shingles it is a different story. When all the nutrients are removed from where they are growing, what are they going to feed on ? Next time any of you clean an older roof that has lichen, look closely at it and see if you can find some of the telltale signs of where lichen used to be. The spots could almost pass as hail damage, just not deep enough marks to be caused by hail.

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I still doubt the theory. Lichen in particular grows in many areas where there is no food source. For example, solar panels. Nothing but glass, aluminum and sealant. It has always seemed to me that the build up of dust and dirt become the "soil/food source" that allows organic growth when there is no obvious source in the material.
Where does GM come from on a painted vertical wall. What does it eat?

Dave · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Eric, there are many types of lichen, and how they get their food. I believe the lichen on roofs is a different species than what grows on metal surfaces. Here is a part of an article that explains how lichen grows on metal surfaces.

Mechanisms of Accumulation
Lichens accumulate substances from their environment by a variety of mechanisms, including particulate trapping, ion exchange, extracellular electrolyte sorption, hydrolysis, and intracellular uptake (Nieboer et al.1978).

Particulate Trapping
Particles of various elements, such as iron, titanium, aluminum, chromium, and uranium can become embedded in the lichen thallus in the algal and/or fungal layer under moist or dry conditions (Nieboer et al. 1978, Gough & Erdman 1977). Morphological characteristics that contribute to particulate trapping include the microtopography of the lichen surface (Richardson & Nieboer, 1980), and a large surface area-to-volume ratio of the lichen, which can result from a thin thallus, branching, or projections from the thallus such as isidia and phyllocladia (Tomassini et al. 1976, Tomassini 1976).

Ion Exchange
Ion exchange requires that the lichen must be moist, so that the elements are in ionic form. Uptake of metal ions by ion exchange is passive and rapid and obeys the principals of mass and charge balance. Extracellular binding sites, such as at cell walls, are most likely involved.

Lichen species vary in their capacity for ion-uptake, as well as the particulate trapping efficiency of their surface morphology. This underlines the importance of correct identification of lichen samples used for monitoring purposes and demonstrates the desirability of collecting the same species for analysis from all sampling sites.

Patrick G · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I have seen alot of Lichen growing on the side's of skylights this year.

Barry Landis · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Patrick G wrote:
I have seen alot of Lichen growing on the side's of skylights this year.

Same here Pat.

Every skylight and at each ends of the peak of the roof (from the edge of the roof to about 2' in is heavy lichen). Most cases, it also grows down the whole edge of the rake.

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Most of the lichen I see is at the perimeter between the glass and aluminum. This is what I figured would be from particulate trapping. I may or may not ever understand all that info Dave, interesting post though. It got me thinking of a small lichen that I commonly notice growing below metal jacks. It's perfectly clean streaked accept for this one type of lichen. I have a photo library, I might start another topic on this. I wanted to do it at RCIA but Gary shot it down so I lost interest.

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Eric Schnaible wrote:
Most of the lichen I see is at the perimeter between the glass and aluminum. This is what I figured would be from particulate trapping. I may or may not ever understand all that info Dave, interesting post though. It got me thinking of a small lichen that I commonly notice growing below metal jacks. It's perfectly clean streaked accept for this one type of lichen. I have a photo library, I might start another topic on this. I wanted to do it at RCIA but Gary shot it down so I lost interest.

Eric, We don't have any Gary's here. Post what ever you want. Sounds interesting.

Patrick G · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Of course Gary shot it down bevause he does not know anything about roof cleaning. This topic is a perfect example of his incompetence, { 1 } you have Lichen now growing on metal { 2 } you have "Roof Cleaners "noticing it. { 3 } You have one roof cleaner { you Eric } that has noticed a difference in this "strain "of Lichen and have photos of it. Not only that but you want to do further investigating on it and he shoots it down. So you have a guy { Gary the fool } running a roof cleaning forum who tells you don't bother, Gary's Grandfather is probably the Officer in charge that told them to "Disregard the unknown aircraft "on the radar screen before Pearl Harbor was bombed. Now I am no way in the same league as alot of these roof cleaners out there but please post what you know,post the photos and "teach "us somthing we dont know Eric. I remember the first time I learned of the "Yellow Lichen "that guy with the Elephant as his Logo told us about it, if not for his heads up I would have suffered upon my first dealing with it. Looking forward to what you have to share on it Eric.