How can I prevent roof stains from coming back?

Roof Stain Prevention and Roof Stain Removers what is the difference?

At RoofArmor.com we have devoted many articles to details about using roof cleaning products and choosing an effective roof cleaner, so we won’t go into detail rehashing old information (instead you can brows the topics list to find specific roof cleaning articles.)

Today we our main focus is going to be looking at the roof stain prevention techniques.

Roof Cleaner for initial Roof Stain removal

By the time black streaks and roof stains tell you your roof needs cleaning, the invading roof algae (gloeocapsa magma algae) has already built a colony of nearly a million algae cells. Roof Cleaning should effectively remove the roof algae stains and the cell debris so that the original roof shingles are once again fully visible. There are a variety of effective roof cleaner products available, and you can explore those else where on our site.

Make no mistake, roof cleaning will take effort, time and energy. There is no silver buller for roof cleaning once the black and green roof stains are visible from the ground. So whether you hire a roof cleaning company, or choose a DIY roof cleaner product, you’ll be interested in preventing the roof stains from coming back.

Roof Stains or Roof Algae Prevention?

Roof Stain prevention requires that you have a shingle roof that is clean, and has no visible roof stains. Ok, so some of you may have noticed that I didn’t say that your roof shingles should not have algae , or mold or mildew… I only said that these organisms should not be visible from the ground with the naked eye. What the difference? You could say the difference is clearly Visible!

Roof Algae, Roof Mold, Mildew, lichens and anything else growing on your roof is so small that you would barely see it on the keyboard in front of you. Individual roof algae cells are the size of a pin head. So when an roof algae cell lands on the roof, you won’t see it from the ground. Over the months, the roof algae cell will divide into more cells, and the roof algae feeds on the limestone in your roof shingles, giving it all the food it needs, and the colony of algae keeps growing, essentially invisible to us from the ground.

One day, it appears. From the ground you can see a faint shadow of a roof stain, in time the roof stain shadow becomes darker and typically fans out toward the ground. You can now see Hundreds of Thousands of Roof Algae Cells in a colony the size of Dallas. And you can see it from the ground! That is a roof stain. When you can see thousands of roof algae from the ground, you have a roof stain. It may take 15 -21 months for the colony to become visible as roof stain.

Roof Stain Prevention – Annual Shingle Maintenance

Now we know that preventing roof algae cells from landing on the roof is not really the important part of roof stain prevention. The important part is preventing the roof algae colony from growing large enough to be see from the ground. That makes a difference in the strategy for preventing roof stains from re-appearing.

Roof stain prevention must wipe out the roof algae colony before it grows large enough to be seen from the ground. Because the colony will not grow to a visible size for 15-21 months, our strategy is to wipe out the colony every 12 months, so that it never gets large enough to be a visible roof stain. We call this an “roof stain interruption strategy”, because we interrupt the colony growth and wipe it out every year.

Roof Armor Stain Prevention treatment

Roof Armor Roof Stain Prevention leverages the interruption strategy to prevent the roof stains from becoming visible.

Each year (typically in the Fall), a homeowner applies Roof Armor Stain Prevention to their roof with a hose end applicator, and walks away!

Roof Armor uses a low impact roof cleaner solution that will wipe out the algae cell colony that has been growing, so that the colony has to start over again. No Colony = no Roof Stains.

Because Roof Armor is applied BEFORE roof stains become visible, there is no reason to rinse the roof. This makes using roof armor, fast, simple and effective.