Comparing high pressure and soft wash roof cleaning techniques which is best for your UK home
When it comes to proper home maintenance, roof maintenance is essential. It's the key to keeping your property safe and giving your roof a long life. When it comes to roof cleaning and roof maintenance, what is the best method? Is high pressure washing best, or should you stick to soft washing your roof?
Here's what you need to know about whether soft washing or pressure washing is best for the roof of your UK home.
What is pressure washing?
Pressure washing involves using specialist equipment that will push water through a hose at an extremely high rate. It works by forcefully moving and removing moss and dirt and grime using a pressurised stream of water. Pressure washing is sometimes referred to as power washing.
What is soft washing?
Soft washing involves a low pressure stream of water. It is a low pressure washing technique that works to gently clean surfaces in the hopes of not damaging the material in the cleaning process.
What are the benefits of cleaning a roof?
Making sure that you clean your roof is essential. But what are the actual benefits of it?
Cleaning your roof, by pressure washing or soft washing, increases roof lifespan
Using a pressure washer or doing a soft wash can really help to improve the longevity of your roof. It can help to preserve the roof tiles on your property, saving you many when it comes to having to replace them otherwise.
Naturally, over time, algae, mould, mildew and debris can slowly build up on the roof. These can cause discolouration but they can also interfere with drainage from your roof.
Pressure washing and soft washing can help to save energy
Poorly-kept roofs can lead to worse energy efficiency and as a result, higher energy bills. A properly kept roof, one that has been cleaned with soft washing or pressure washing and has a protective coating on it, is more likely to be energy efficient.
Improves the curb appeal of your home
A clean roof will make your home look much nicer. This in turn can improve the value of your property. This effect is known as curb appeal.
Are there downsides to either pressure washing or soft washing your roof?
Cleaning your roof has plenty of benefits, but are there downsides?
The downsides to pressure washing
Pressure washing is very forceful. It's good at removing organic stains and organic growth, but it involves a super strong stream of water blasting out onto the roof. Choosing to pressure wash something must be done with plenty of knowledge of the material, as otherwise it can cause serious damage. On fragile surfaces, the stream that comes out of pressure washing equipment can be very dangerous. It can break apart elements of the material, thus making it not worth doing.
Generally speaking, a lot of people opt not to pressure wash roofs simply due to the mess that it could cause on the roof; by blasting moss and mould around, you're simply spreading the mess. There is a high chance that the high pressure stream will damage or dislodge tiles, the water could break a tile and then enter the loft, and, perhaps most importantly, pressure washing may remove the muck and grime, but it does not actually kill the lichen and mould spores. This could lead to the moss removal needing to be redone numerous times.
The downsides of soft washing
Unlike pressure washing, soft wash cleaning is much gentler. That means that a lot of the downsides that come with pressure washing are simply not present with the low pressure washing cleaning method.
However, instead, many people claim that soft washing does not provide the same level of stain removal. Likewise, it can take much longer to clean a roof using the soft washing method.
That being said, there are upsides of soft washing that outweigh the negatives of the low pressure cleaning methods.
What are the benefits of soft washing?
Soft washing has a lot of benefits that make it favourable to many. It is often chosen over power washing for that reason.
Soft washing is likely to have longer lasting results
When you soft wash a roof, you are much more likely to kill off the mould spores and lichen on your roof. This means that the mould will be less likely to return once the roof has been cleaned.
This means that overall, the regular roof cleaning cost is much less than pressure washing. The soft wash system is very well equipped to create long-lasting results.
Soft washing equipment is safer to use
The high powered water jets used for high pressure washing are quite dangerous. As a result they require pre-knowledge, safety gear and lots of care. Soft washing is the safer way of roof cleaning, by far.
Which is best for your home?
Generally speaking, soft washing is considered to be the best cleaning method for your roof. It will provide long lasting results that will result in you paying out less in the long run. Soft washing is likely to dramatically decrease your roof cleaning costs on a regular basis, whilst still giving your roof a thorough clean.
Soft washing does take a little longer, but the soft wash chemicals are great at things like moss removal and stain removal. They will work well as a cleaning treatment and roof cleaner while also reducing the risk of damaging your property in any way.
