Faded Roof Granules

On occasion here at the CleanerToday Customer Service and Inquiry Response Unit we receive inquiries from customers who are, unfortunately, not getting exactly the results that they hoped for when purchasing our products. We are always saddened to hear this and we always try to provide trouble-shooting advice and guidance to increase the odds of success, but unfortunately, sometimes the problem is simply beyond our, or the customer’s, control. This is one of those situations where all we can do is acknowledge that even our amazingly powerful cleaners have some limits depending on the situation.

The Question

The following was received from a customer in Minnesota:
“I have used 2 of your cleaners now qse 1500 and now qse 3000 and neither has gotten the black mold off of my Dutch colonial roof. I’ve done it about 5 times now and it is fading, but NOT gone. This is getting very expensive, and I am wondering whether it will ever go away.”

Our Answer…

Unfortunately, the only answer we could give this customer is that it is possible that the discoloration she is seeing may never go away, but it is likely that she doesn’t fully understand exactly what she is seeing.

Clarification

As a point of clarification to a question we receive a lot, QSE (Quick, Simple, Effective) 1500 and QSE 3000 are the same cleaner at the same strength. The 3000 is not twice as strong as the 1500; instead the number refers to the number of square feet that the cleaner will clean. So, the QSE 3000 is twice the QUANTITY, not twice the strength.

Our Answer…continued

We suspect that the problem here is one we encounter a great deal. It helps to think of roof stains caused by mold and algae as a piece of black paper on your roof. As the stain grows over time, it completely blocks or reduces the amount of sunlight reaching your roof. Over the years, the granules on your entire roof will fade from constant exposure to sunlight, but you don’t notice this because the entire roof fades at the same rate, so unless you have saved a new shingle from installation and have kept it in the dark, you won’t notice the difference. Sun bleaching is a common phenomenon that many people have witnessed first-hand, and the sun is powerful enough to bleach even garment dyes out of clothing over time under the right conditions. If you think about what would happen if you covered parts of your roof with black paper that blocked the sunlight, you will realize that over time those covered areas would not fade, instead they would look darker, more like the roof did when it was new.

What Happened?

What we think happened in the above situation was that the roof stains were up on the roof for a long time, long enough for the other parts of the roof to fade. Once the stains were removed, the now clean shingles underneath appear darker and they ARE darker, but only because they have been protected from the fading action of the sunlight, not because the stains are still present. The shingles are clean but appear discolored because they remain darker than the rest of the faded roof. Unfortunately, the only resolution to such a situation is to replace all the shingles; there simply is not a cleaner that can bleach out shingle granules to the same shade as the sun has done over years of time.

How to Prevent the Problem

We advise customers to always clean their roof at the first sign of visible stains. Actually, we would recommend cleaning a roof BEFORE you see the stains because the stains are actively growing long before you can actually see them. The longer you wait after you first notice visible stains, the harder it becomes to most effectively clean your roof. And once you have cleaned the roof, you should always use the Roof Armor preventive treatment on a regular yearly schedule even though you may not see visible stains. The Roof Armor will remove the invisible stains preventing them from ever becoming a visible problem.
If the above customer does decide to replace her entire roof due to the stain problem, we would recommend that she immediately start using Roof Armor to prevent this same problem from occurring again. Roof stains tend to cluster in certain regions, so if you have experienced roof staining once, you are likely to experience it again on a new roof, eventually.
The CleanerToday.com roof system, cleaning with QSE or OX and then yearly follow ups with Roof Armor will ensure that your newly clean roof stays clean for years to come, thereby avoiding the unfortunate situation encountered by our customer in Minnesota. To learn more or to purchase a roof cleaning system today, visit us at CleanerToday.com…today!