rake for tile roof?

[Edward Reid]

I'm trying to figure out an improved tool for getting leaves off a concrete tile roof.

Yeah, I can blow the leaves off, and have been doing so. But there can be a lot of leave, and they like to stick to the tiles, and once I get them loose they pile up before I get them to the edge. So I was thinking of raking part of them before blowing them ... but of course the problem is that a rake has a flat business end that doesn't match the undulation of the tiles, and even a grass rake with flexible tines won't flex enough to get into the "valleys" (the bottom of the undulations).

I've considered getting a cheap grass rake with plastic (to avoid marring the tiles) tines and cutting the ends to match the undulation of the tiles.

Any idea whether this would work? Other ideas for achieving the goal?

Edward

[Chuck Finley]

A chainsaw.

Cut down the deciduous trees and replace them with evergreens.

[Moe DeLoughan]

Concrete roof, you say?

I got yer leaf solution right here:

On a more serious note, would a blow gun attached to an air compressor do a better job than a leaf blower? Or how about a power washer?

[nestork]

If it wuz me, I would use two 10 foot lengths od 2 1/2 inch PVC pipe and modify a vaccuum cleaner accessory to vaccuum the leaves off the roof using a 20 foot long wand. That way, you can set up the vaccuum cleaner to suck the air out of a garbage can, and have the leaves collect in that garbage can.

That is, connect the wand to the garbage can and connect the garbage can to the vaccuum cleaner. Lee Valley sells a dust collection kit that fits over the top of a standard garbage can. The air comes in at a tangent to the can and leaves the garbage can in the middle of the top. That way, the momentum of the leaves causes them to collect on the outside of the can, leaving the middle of the can relatively free of flying dust.

[Guv Bob]

Call up a few people who do tree trimming and ask what they use.

[Edward Reid]

Pesky city regs.

I would think that most air compressors are designed for high pressure, whereas leaf blowers are designed for high volume. The compressors I've seen used to power tools, I can't imagine them putting out the air volume that a leaf blower does.

Don't want to add water. The leaf fall here is heavy enough dry ...

Based on the noise level in the 'hood, I think they use 50HP backpack blowers with no mufflers ... well, that's the "yard maintenance" folks, not tree trimmers ... the latter use chainsaws ... see first comment above.

There's a fair amount of deadwood fall on this house (large mature southern live oaks), but that's a different problem. At least the concrete tile holds up to the deadwood fall pretty well.

Is your last name Goldberg? ;-) Seriously, I can't see that working in my situation, but I might find it very intriguing in some situations.

So, I guess I'm off on the path of original R&D ...

Edward