Hi All
How does this 'copper wire' malarky work to stop moss on a roof?
Where do you run the copper wire?
Hi All
How does this 'copper wire' malarky work to stop moss on a roof?
Where do you run the copper wire?
|Hi All | |How does this 'copper wire' malarky work to stop moss on a roof? | |Where do you run the copper wire?
Copper dissolves in rain water, the resulting solution is poisonous the moss.
Not tried it myself :-(
Runs of copper along roof ridges. Copper salts formed with rain water. Washes down over moss. Moss either dies or doesn't start growing there. No idea what salt is formed or why moss doesn't like that particular salt.
Copper Sulphate probably. Rain water was a very weak sulphuric acid due to volcanic dust, and now more significantly, a stronger acid due to industrial pollution.
If it's legal, you could probably do the same job by spraying with weak Copper Sulphate once a year. Magnesium Sulphate (same effect) is what does the job in lawn moss killer, or used to before grandma got elected.
R.
Tried it on my last house, I once hung copper stripped from 2.5mm mains wire on the roof ridge in order to reduce moss on my last house. Did reduce on the tiles nearest to the wire but bugger all reduction else where, so not too sure if copper really works. Went a nice shade of green after a while.
Easier to let moss build up and brush off.
Is this safe to use in a children's playground?
Dave
I used to buy copper sulphate crystals from my local toyshop (they had a selection of items for refilling chemistry sets). IIRC a weak solution of C.S. can be used for invisible writing.
Owain
Reason I ask. The client is a pensioner living in a bungalow and the gutters block with moss every few months. I don't want to keep going back to clear them every couple of months so I'm after a semi permanant solution.
If I completely remove all the moss it will be quite a big job so I'd like it to last as long as possible.
AFAIK they say a wire is too little, and to use a strip of copper flashing. More surface area, hence more leaching.
I have used a solution of a few tablespoons of copper sulphate in a two-gallon sprayer. Spray it on the moss, wait a few weeks for it to turn black, and then get it off.
Thomas Prufer
My roof is slates, each held in place by a copper rivet. THe whole roof apart from the actual copper rivet is covered in moss and lichen. It doesnt work.
If you want to use T&E you could run a wire across every 2'.
Copper flashing lasts >100 years, but is certainly more money than lead. Thin T&E isnt so robust, but if you've got several such wires up there, even if half were to go it should still work..
Unless there is a serious problem with your roof, rain doesnt wash over the copper fixing.
NT
months so I'm
lichen.
But if the slates are laid conventionally the copper rivets (probably actually nails) of a lower row of tiles will be covered by the overlap of the row above and no nails should be exposed hence no leaching of copper salts down the roof ! If the nails (rivets) are exposed, then so are the holes they go though, and the roof will leak like a sieve.
AWEM
lichen is not moss tho.
YOu dont know how slates are attached I think ;) There are two nails which are protected from rain and a rivet that isnt.
Moss is the one that blocks my downpipes.
Further to answer to Meow. Slates have 3 holes, two about 2/3 way up at the sides which you can nail some copper nails in and one at the bottom in the middle. With that one a large rivet is inverted and slid up between the two slates below and the wire part of the rivet enters the hole from below and its bent down to secure the tile. Look like this:
Eh? Magnesium sulphate is Epsom Salts, you can buy it at any chemist and probably some supermarkets.
Mary
I wonder if youre thinking of asbetos imitation slates. Real slate is attached with a single nail at the top - at least on every slated house round here I've ever seen anyway. Rarely one might find 2 hole fixing, holes side by side at the top.
NT
This might be a regional variation. Round here the slates have just the first two holes you mention.
Looking at the web page you quote it's clear that those rivets are intended for top row slates only. Most slates are kept in place partly by the weight of two tiles in the row above. However, for slates in the top row, there is no row above. Hence the idea of clipping the top row slates to the second-to-top row ("penultimate" row) with those rivets.
Of course it's possible that in some parts of the country *all* slates are fixed that way, but I've never seen it.
I think what they mean is that only the top row NEEDS this as the lower slates all have other slates sitting on top of them.
I have NEVER seen those rivets used on slated rooves..all the ones I have seen have tow holes at the top only, that are clouted to the battens.
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