Moss on Roof

Hi All

How does this 'copper wire' malarky work to stop moss on a roof?

Where do you run the copper wire?

Reply to
The Medway Handyman
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|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 :-(

Reply to
Dave Fawthrop

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.

Reply to
dom

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.

Reply to
Richard Downing

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.

Reply to
Ian_m

Is this safe to use in a children's playground?

Dave

Reply to
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

Reply to
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.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

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

Reply to
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.

Reply to
marvelus

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

Reply to
meow2222

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

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

lichen is not moss tho.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

YOu dont know how slates are attached I think ;) There are two nails which are protected from rain and a rivet that isnt.

Reply to
marvelus

Moss is the one that blocks my downpipes.

Reply to
marvelus

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:

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I dont know what they are talking about with "penultimate row", as each tile has one.

Reply to
marvelus

Eh? Magnesium sulphate is Epsom Salts, you can buy it at any chemist and probably some supermarkets.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

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

Reply to
meow2222

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.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

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.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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