Roof clean advice please

Hi chaps

I am doing a roof clean for an existing window cleaning customer next week.  

It's quite a big detached bungalow, about 150 square meters roof space.  The customer just wants the moss scraped and swept off, no chemical treatment or PW.   It has the large flat tiles rather than the contoured tiles so I'm thinking a wire brush and flat scraper is the way to go.  It only has a light covering of moss rather than being plastered in it.

Any advice on price would be appreciated as I have no idea how to price one of these.  Based in South East.

TIA

aceman said:

Hi chaps

I am doing a roof clean for an existing window cleaning customer next week.  

It's quite a big detached bungalow, about 150 square meters roof space.  The customer just wants the moss scraped and swept off, no chemical treatment or PW.   It has the large flat tiles rather than the contoured tiles so I'm thinking a wire brush and flat scraper is the way to go.  It only has a light covering of moss rather than being plastered in it.

Any advice on price would be appreciated as I have no idea how to price one of these.  Based in South East.

TIA

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How long do you think it will take ? And how are you going tk access the roof ?? This would influence my pricing of a job like this 

aceman said:

Hi chaps

I am doing a roof clean for an existing window cleaning customer next week.  

It's quite a big detached bungalow, about 150 square meters roof space.  The customer just wants the moss scraped and swept off, no chemical treatment or PW.   It has the large flat tiles rather than the contoured tiles so I'm thinking a wire brush and flat scraper is the way to go.  It only has a light covering of moss rather than being plastered in it.

Any advice on price would be appreciated as I have no idea how to price one of these.  Based in South East.

TIA

Click to expand...

With flat slates or tiles just be aware that there may be tingles and not to snap them off if your scraper snags. You'll end up with half a Welsh quarry around your ankles 

Pjj said:

How long do you think it will take ? And how are you going tk access the roof ?? This would influence my pricing of a job like this 

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I guess that the essence of my question.  I've never done one so any advice on how long it's likely to take would be appreciated.  I can then put the price on it ?

It's a very low pitched bungalow so easy access.

aceman said:

I guess that the essence of my question.  I've never done one so any advice on how long it's likely to take would be appreciated.  I can then put the price on it ?

It's a very low pitched bungalow so easy access.

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We generally use a hire tower scaffold , or on higher stuff get it scaffolded but this is obviously expensive, scaffold tower hire varies but about £70 delivered for  a day  or £120 for a week , due to health and safety implications we don’t walk on the roof .

Time wise without seeing it it’s hard to say but guessing up to two days , it will be much harder work than you think , price wise that’s a difficult one as well , we would scrape , and then softwash with hypo or biocide it, but as a guide doing what we do prices are generally between £600-1200 depending on size and access .

I would go and do a test patch and time myself.

Thanks guys - appreciate the advice ?

We have a bungalow although it does have high ceilings and 2 steps up to front door, I won a Easy scraper from Sid the other week. So a couple of days ago I gave it a go. I was using a slx27 with the scraper. I was working from the ground quite easily and just about managed to reach the apex, I believe our roof is called a pyramid hip roof (all 4 sides slope to a centre point). I didn't have very much moss on the roof at all, it wasn't that difficult to scrape but it was time consuming, then there is the clear up. Not only the gutters but some moss bounces off and landed in the gravel round the house which was a pain. Plus you need to block downpipes if they connect to drains without any way to stop moss going down the drain!

One thing I would say is that while working from the ground is good as you can adjust your position very easily but as your eyeline is sort of straight up the roof tiles it's not that easy to spot the moss. It would be easier if I had been closer to the roof so you are looking a bit more down on the tiles where possible. Also I only had 1 angle adjustment on the scraper so it was angled at 90 degrees to the tiles. This was great at removing moss from the flat of the tiles but not ideal for removing the moss on the downwards facing edge of the tiles. I could have done with 2 angle adjustments one down the other to skew the scraper to enable the edge to be scraped. 

How ever long you think it will take double if not triple it. Make 100% sure you are working from a safe stable platform as wielding a long pole at an almost horizontal angle will unbalance you and be hard on arms, shoulders, back and stomach muscles.

Good luck and don't forget to get before and after picys ? 

I had an enquiry about a similair easy access bunglalow recently, customer was saying "its easy access so i just want someone to remove the moss, shouldn't take long - my husband did it a few yrs ago blah blah blah". I passed based on the impression she gave of wanting it done for nothing - be aware of the customer and make sure you quote and explain the process to justify the price

ched999uk said:

We have a bungalow although it does have high ceilings and 2 steps up to front door, I won a Easy scraper from Sid the other week. So a couple of days ago I gave it a go. I was using a slx27 with the scraper. I was working from the ground quite easily and just about managed to reach the apex, I believe our roof is called a pyramid hip roof (all 4 sides slope to a centre point). I didn't have very much moss on the roof at all, it wasn't that difficult to scrape but it was time consuming, then there is the clear up. Not only the gutters but some moss bounces off and landed in the gravel round the house which was a pain. Plus you need to block downpipes if they connect to drains without any way to stop moss going down the drain!

One thing I would say is that while working from the ground is good as you can adjust your position very easily but as your eyeline is sort of straight up the roof tiles it's not that easy to spot the moss. It would be easier if I had been closer to the roof so you are looking a bit more down on the tiles where possible. Also I only had 1 angle adjustment on the scraper so it was angled at 90 degrees to the tiles. This was great at removing moss from the flat of the tiles but not ideal for removing the moss on the downwards facing edge of the tiles. I could have done with 2 angle adjustments one down the other to skew the scraper to enable the edge to be scraped. 

How ever long you think it will take double if not triple it. Make 100% sure you are working from a safe stable platform as wielding a long pole at an almost horizontal angle will unbalance you and be hard on arms, shoulders, back and stomach muscles.

Good luck and don't forget to get before and after picys ? 

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Nice one, I've been waiting to hear about the bungalow you booked in, using your nice new toys on, have made a post elsewhere?

TopNotch said:

Nice one, I've been waiting to hear about the bungalow you booked in, using your nice new toys on, have made a post elsewhere?

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I it was my bungalow . I haven't made any other posts as I didn't feel there was really much I learned. 

A few of things I will say:

Working from the ground is great for movement and stability but not good for the angle you can see the tiles at. You are almost looking inline with the tiles so you can't see the edges very well and that is where some of the moss is! 

To be able to scrape the edges of the tiles from the ground you need 2 angle adapters on your pole. 1 for getting the scraper at 90 degrees to tiles and another to be able to set 45 degrees skew to pull sideways along the edges of the tiles.

If you are scraping pulling top to bottom you have to be careful of the 10 - 15ft of pole that can be behind you!!!!

You have to work in a methodical way say left to right or right to left otherwise you will not be scraping the whole roof but just the bits you can see.

As for the Freemans Flexi Scraper:

It is very nicely made. All sharp edges of the blade holder and the pole insert are chamfered nicely. The pole insert has the round diameter that is inserted into the pole machined less smoothly so it is gripped by the pole clamp better!

I only used a nylon blade on my flat concrete tiles as I wanted to ensure I didn't put any undue pressure on the tiles as I lowered the pole but it seemed to work very well. I think it works better that the stainless flat blades as it cant get stuck in the small gaps between tiles. I think you could make extra nylon bladed from nylon chopping boards ?

We didn't have much moss at all so I just had a go at the stuff I could see from the ground. Here are a couple of images:

As you can see not much moss to start with. Bear in mind this was my house and just a quick test from the ground to see what it was like to scrape. It wasn't intending to be a proper job just a test. As you can see from the images from ground level you are looking up the edges of the tiles. If doing it for a custy then I would have used a tower even on my bungalow so I could get closer to see what I was doing plus being able to block downpipes and clean out moss from gutters etc. Plus I didn't even try wire brushing the ridge tiles. I am going to order either the DA components or the Rutland Pumps spray kit that would enable me to complete the job properly. 

Don't judge the end result, it was just a quick test ? I do need to biocide/hypo/pain the chimney stack ? 

Anyway hope that helps in some way. If you have any specific questions please ask.

@ched999ukdoes the Freeman scraper not have a centre Allen bolt as well as the angle adapter adjustment? I’d assume it does like the Marshall scraper, use this for your second adjustment and you don’t need to have a second angle adapter.

Mx19 said:

@ched999ukdoes the Freeman scraper not have a centre Allen bolt as well as the angle adapter adjustment? I’d assume it does like the Marshall scraper, use this for your second adjustment and you don’t need to have a second angle adapter.

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It does but it has a square machined into it. So you only have a choice of 4 positions, I think, I must check. I have realised I have 2 euro threads with the angle adjustments that I can use.

ched999uk said:

It does but it has a square machined into it. So you only have a choice of 4 positions, I think, I must check. I have realised I have 2 euro threads with the angle adjustments that I can use.

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The Marshall one has a square on the “male” end and the female is like a multi pointed star, they’re designed for endless adjustments without the addition of extra parts and I’m assuming the Freeman will be similar

Mx19 said:

The Marshall one has a square on the “male” end and the female is like a multi pointed star, they’re designed for endless adjustments without the addition of extra parts and I’m assuming the Freeman will be similar

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You got me thinking so I went out to shed to have a look, even though it has just started raining! The Freemans one is a male and female square!!! See picy.

In years gone by my head would be able to work out what angles are possible with a multipoint adjustment but lately my analytical head has all gone to mush. I'm still not convinced that you could get a downward tilt (so blade at 90 degrees to tile) and slew so you have a leading edge and the blade diagonal to the tile while dragging from left to right.