KILL THE MOSS & LICHEN — LET THE WEATHER DO THE REST.

A roof clean physically removes what's growing on your roof today. A roof treatment kills it and stops it coming back. We spray a treatment across your entire roof — in most cases without setting foot on it. It kills all the lichen, moss, mould and algae on contact, and soaks into the tile itself, which is porous. From there the rain does the rest: every time it rains, the water washes away the dead growth and draws more of the treatment back out of the tile, running it down the roof and killing anything the original spray couldn't physically reach. That soaked-in residual is the whole point — high pressure cleaning and soft washing remove what's there but do nothing to stop it growing straight back, whereas a treatment leaves your roof actively resisting regrowth for years.

This is the one thing to understand before you book: a roof treatment is not an instant result — it's the ultimate delayed gratification. You'll usually notice a difference after a couple of good rains, but the bulk of the growth comes away gradually over one to two winters. It doesn't come off in sheets; it breaks down and washes away a little at a time, every time it rains.

On the majority of homes, no — and that's the main reason we do it this way. We work from platform ladders on the ground and can reach the ridge cap on most roofs, so nobody walks across your tiles. Nothing gets cracked, chipped or stood on, and there's no foot traffic on flashings or around penetrations where leaks start. Some roofs do need access — double-storey sections, or a house where one elevation can't be reached from the ground — and if yours is one of them, we'll tell you upfront when we quote, not on the day.

Lichen, moss, mould and algae — organic growth. It needs four things to thrive: sunlight, oxygen, moisture and a food source, and a roof that collects dust and never gets cleaned provides all four. It also grows exponentially, which is why roofs seem to go from 'a bit patchy' to 'completely covered' in what feels like no time at all.

It matters. Lichen in particular doesn't just sit on the surface — it embeds into the tile, eats into it, and over time can lift and displace tiles. Treating it early is considerably cheaper than dealing with what it does if you leave it. The appearance is a genuine bonus, but it's not the reason the service exists.

Benzalkonium chloride. It's technically classed as an antiseptic, and it targets organic growth specifically — it isn't an acid, a stripper or an abrasive. By the time it reaches your roof it's well diluted, at a strength designed to kill the growth without harming your roof.

Same active ingredient — genuinely, we're not going to pretend otherwise. The difference is strength and delivery. The retail product is much weaker and is designed to run through a hose-end sprayer, which dilutes it again on the way out. We start with a far stronger concentrate and apply it through a pump system that puts it on the roof at a controlled rate and lets us reach the ridge cap from the ground. Stronger product, applied properly, to the whole roof — including the parts you can't reach off a ladder with a garden hose. It kills faster and it lasts longer.

Yes. Our operators wear respirators during application, because anyone producing an airborne mist should. But once we've finished and packed up there are no lingering fumes and nothing to avoid — the yard is yours again the same day.

Overspray onto adjacent garden beds is avoided as part of how we work, and we'll wet down or cover sensitive planting near the roofline before we start. Any runoff reaching the ground is heavily diluted by the rain that carries it there. If you have anything you're particularly precious about — a vegetable patch, established feature planting, a pond — point it out before we start and we'll plan around it.

Disconnect or divert the downpipe feeding your tank before we apply the treatment, and leave it disconnected until after the first couple of good rains. By then the bulk of the treatment has washed through and normal collection can resume. Tell us when you book if your roof feeds a tank and we'll remind you before the day so it isn't forgotten.

No. The treatment affects organic growth only — it does nothing to terracotta, concrete tile, Colorbond, or the zinc in your gutters and downpipes. There's no acid, nothing abrasive, and no high pressure involved. If you have old or brittle tiles, a treatment is the safest option available to you: what damages fragile tiles is high pressure water and people walking on them, and this method involves neither.

It depends on your situation, and all three are fine. If your panels are staying put, we spray above and around them and it runs down underneath — and in practice there's usually less growth under panels anyway, since most organic growth needs sunlight. If your panels are coming off or being replaced, the ideal sequence is panels off, treatment applied, panels back on; if your installer can coordinate the timing with us, that gives the best possible result. And if the panels themselves are dirty, we clean solar panels as a separate service using purified water, and can do it while we're already there.

It comes away gradually over months, in small particles — realistically no more than the leaf litter and general debris that ends up in your gutters anyway. It won't dump all at once and it won't overfill them. Gutters are worth clearing periodically regardless of whether you treat your roof.

Your roof will look dramatically better — but we want to be straight with you about why. That's the growth being gone, revealing the tile underneath; we're not restoring, enhancing or re-colouring anything. If your tiles have genuinely faded and you want the colour back, that's a roof coating — a different service and a different conversation. We'd rather tell you that now than have you disappointed in two winters' time.

Partially. Droppings are organic, and the treatment contains surfactants that help break them down, so rain will lift some of it. But it isn't what the product is designed for and we won't promise you a spotless result. If there's a specific patch we can reach from the ground, we'll target it directly while we're there.

You don't have to, but we'd recommend it. Pressure cleaning removed what was there but left nothing behind to stop regrowth, so in four or five years that section will start growing again while the treated parts stay clear — and you'll end up with a patchy roof and a second job. Treating the whole roof at once means it all ages the same way, and on most homes the extra area is a small addition to the price.

We've been doing roof treatments for around four years, and the very first roof we treated is now four and a half years on and still completely clear — no regrowth at all. Based on that and on how the residual works, we'd expect seven to ten years from a treatment. For comparison, a high pressure clean typically starts showing regrowth within four to five years, because there's nothing left in the roof to prevent it.

Yes. We guarantee that 95% of the organic growth on your roof will be gone within 24 months of treatment. There's one condition, and it's simply how the process works: the treatment needs rain to activate and to carry the dead growth away, so in an exceptionally dry period the timeline stretches out because the rain is doing the work. It isn't the treatment failing — it's waiting. If you get to 24 months and your roof isn't there, talk to us.

We need one clear day to apply the treatment, with no rain in the 24 hours afterwards — that window lets it soak properly into the tile, which is what creates the long-term residual effect. After that, rain is exactly what we want: it isn't a problem for this service, it's the mechanism. Which means the run-up to winter is an excellent time to have it done.

No need, and it won't achieve much. Rain works because it's falling from height with real force behind it — a hose from ground level doesn't come close. Once the treatment has soaked into the tile it's in there and it's stable. It'll wait for the rain.

Not at all — plenty of our jobs are done with nobody there. We need access to water and power, and the working area clear of anything that can be moved. If there are gates, dogs or anything else we should know about, tell us when you book and we'll plan around it.

We measure from current aerial imagery, which is accurate enough to give you a real price over the phone rather than a vague range, and we'll send you a screenshot of the exact measurements along with your quote so you can see what we've measured. We then confirm the measurements on site before we start and adjust the price up or down if reality differs from the aerials, so you're never locked into a number we got wrong. If you'd prefer a firm figure before committing, we can come out and quote on site instead.