Roof cleaning and copper ridge

[Bill]

I'll be along again in a minute with another question that my son has raised, but here is Q1.

His house is in a large "garden" with huge trees, which drop all sorts of stuff onto his roofs. The north facing parts in particular were holding large quantities of organic debris, moss and so on. He has had the roof cleaned and the broken cement ties replaced where necessary.

The roofing contractor has been advocating fitting a copper ridge cover which, he says, will keep the roof clean for ever and save over the years by vastly reducing roof maintenance. I am very doubtful, as the trees, birds etc. will still drop what they do and, although copper is likely to act as a mild fungicide, I'm not certain it will work. I am also not sure why it won't turn a bright green as in old cathedral roofs.

The south facing roofs have much less tree cover and didn't look as if any cleaning was needed anyway.

Has anyone done this and have any advice?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bill pretended :

Copper is good for keeping the growth of moss at bay and of course it will turn green.

If the growth of moss is a problem then that will solve it, but it doesn't sound as if it is.

Copper worked on my low slope corrugated garage roof, where moss grew in the channels, restricting the flow and causing it to over flow the panel joints.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

I removed all the moss on my roof with a scraper. It's a bungalow, but I was not happy up there. Several sites on Google say that a copper wire on the ridge tiles will prevent moss. I've done this, but it's too early to tell if it will work.

[alan_m]

A well known technique.

It will have a beneficial effect of stopping the moss from growing. Once established the moss tends to trap more of the fine organic matter that falls on the roof rather than it being washed off in the next shower of heavy rain.

North facing roofs remain wetter for longer and provide the ideal environment for moss growth. Moss also acts like sponge and maintains the moisture so promoting more moss growth.

It will not stop falling leaves collecting in the gutter but cleaning out a gutter is a lot easier than attempting to clean the whole roof.

As for turning green - yes it will turn but that is not a problem.

A copper ridge cover would be enough to eliminate moss and if the roof has just been cleaned it may be an good time to install. However if not DIY the cost effectiveness of the solution has to be considered - the cost of getting a roofer/contractor to install against the ongoing costs every, say, 10 years to clean.

[tabbypurr]

Copper turns brown in the end. Scrap cable sure is cheap.

NT

[Robin]

Local council declared a verdigris free zone?

[Bill]

In message , [e-mail] writes

The decision has been made. Bare copper wire just beside the ridge.

[Chris J Dixon]

I'll be interested to hear how it goes. I am thinking about trying it on a ground floor pitched roof, that I can just about get to without too much difficulty, and I must have enough old cable scraps that can be stripped and joined, so long as they aren't tinned. :-(

Chris

[Bill]

I'll try to report back if only about the fitting. We are still just at the decision stage. Here, we are also going to try it on the pitched garage roof for the same reason - it is easy to get to. It also collects the most moss and debris from the trees.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They were treated with chemicals to make them green.

Copper doesn't naturally weather green. Although it may do in a polluted area.