Moss lifted, algae and lichen killed at the root, and the roof left sound underneath. This page is the long version — what grows up there, what actually shifts it, what it costs and how the day runs. Everything is here rather than scattered.
Almost everything people find confusing about roof cleaning — including why two quotes can be hundreds apart — comes back to this one distinction.
Physical removal of the growth that has depth to it — moss cushions, built-up debris, whatever has gathered in the laps and along the verges. It is done by hand on a roof, because that is the only way to take moss off without working the covering harder than it should be worked. The roof looks transformed the moment it is finished, and on a roof that gets decent light it can hold reasonably well on its own.
A biocide applied at low pressure and left to soak into the outermost layer of the tile, where the spores sit in the grain and the moss rooting runs sideways through the surface. None of that can be reached physically, from outside, by anybody. Treating is slower to show and it is the half that decides whether you are looking at this again next year or in several.
A roof tile is far rougher and far more open than it looks from the ground. Growth occupies three depths in it, and only the shallowest of the three can be reached by hand or by water.
Between them these account for effectively every roof we are called out to look at. They look similar from the ground and they want quite different handling, so it is worth knowing which is which before anybody quotes you.
The one everybody recognises, and the most common growth on Irish roofs by a wide margin. It builds in the tile laps and along shaded verges where water sits longest, and once established it holds moisture against the covering and sheds steadily into the gutters. It has real depth, so it comes off by hand first — and then wants treating, because lifting the cushions leaves the rooting behind.
A single-celled film rather than a plant, which is why it looks flat and has no texture to it at all. It is usually the first thing to appear, on the pitch that sees least sun, and it is the easiest of the six to clear. Left to thicken it holds enough moisture to give moss and lichen somewhere to start, so catching it early is a genuinely smaller job.
Gloeocapsa magma — the dark streaking that runs down concrete and clay tiles and gets taken for dirt or weathering. It carries a pigment sheath that protects it from UV and shrugs off ordinary washing, which is why scrubbing at it disappoints people. What clears it is a treatment given time to work rather than more effort.
Reddish and reddish-brown tonal staining on tiles and fascia, and much more common within a few kilometres of the sea. Salt aerosol holds moisture against the surface long after the rain has stopped, which is exactly the condition it wants. It is often a mixed colony with green algae, and it responds very well to treatment — coastal roofs carrying it are a straightforward job.
Part algae, part fungus, living as one organism, and bonded into the surface by a holdfast that sits below the face of the tile or slate. Nothing brushes it off, and force is the wrong answer on a roof — it is the covering that gives way, not the lichen. What works is a dwell-time treatment and then patience: it dies back and weathers off gradually, and we come back to check it.
Not one organism but the residue of years of them. Algae, spores and airborne dust colonise, die back and layer up until the roof reads as generally darkened rather than visibly grown-over. It is common on concrete tile, block paving and render. It also lifts well, and the before-and-after on a stained roof is the most dramatic change we produce.
Not sure which of these you have? Send a photograph from the ground and we will name it — and tell you honestly whether it is far enough along to be worth treating yet.
You are entitled to know what is going on your house before anyone starts, so here it is in full.
Everything applied to a roof comes down off it, so the ground is dealt with before the roof is. Planting below the gutter line is soaked or sheeted before a drop goes on, and we keep a wide margin from ponds, wells and any open water on the property. Nothing is mixed anywhere on site. Before we leave you are told how long to keep children and pets off the ground underneath, rather than left to wonder about it. The garden is part of the job, not something that happens to be beside it, and it goes back the way we found it.
One visit for the great majority of houses, and you get a realistic window rather than an optimistic one.
Two pictures from the ground and an Eircode is usually enough to price a job properly. From those we read off area, pitch, covering and how deep the growth has gone, and anything we cannot see from them we ask about rather than guess at.
On the day, anything with depth to it comes off by hand first. Then the treatment goes on at low pressure, matched to the covering and given the dwell time it needs — heavy rain within a few hours works against it, so a date gets moved rather than a product wasted.
Gutters cleared of everything the roof has shed, access areas swept, and a word about anything along the roofline worth an eye on. Where lichen is involved we come back once it has dried out to see how far it has gone, and that return is part of the job rather than another bill.
Guide ranges from work we have actually done across the county. Find the house nearest your own.
These are guide ranges and not quotes. What your own roof comes to follows from its area and pitch, whether the covering is concrete tile, clay or natural slate, how deep the growth has gone, how we can reach it, and whether the job calls for specialist access equipment. Solar panels add from €30 where they are done on the same visit as the roof; on their own they need a trip of their own and come to more. Everything is priced from photographs, and where a roof lands outside these ranges — in either direction — you hear that before you agree to anything.
Three headings, and between them they account for very nearly the whole spread. Open any of them.
Area first, then pitch, then covering. A steep roof is slower over every square metre than a shallow one. Clay is more brittle than concrete and gets a lighter touch; original slate gets the lightest touch of the three and takes the longest for it. None of this is guesswork — it is all legible in a photograph.
Caught while it is still a film, a roof is a treatment and a rinse. Left until the moss has real depth, the clearing has to happen by hand before the treatment can reach anything at all, and that is where most of the distance between a low quote and a high one sits. It is also the one factor entirely within your control.
Working the whole roof from ground level keeps a figure down; bringing access equipment in raises it, and we say so at the quote stage rather than on the day. Anything else booked for the same visit — gutters, panels, render — rides on a set-up that has already been paid for, which is why combined jobs come in below the same list booked apart.
Conditions change more across this county than the distances suggest. Each of these has a page of its own about what happens to roofs there.
Not on the list? We cover the townlands around all of these as well, so send your Eircode or your nearest town and we will tell you straight away whether you are in range.
Both of these are free, and both have talked people out of spending money this year.
This is the question we are asked more than any other. The guide sets out what regrowth actually needs, why clearing alone leaves it with everything it wants, and what a realistic interval looks like once a roof has been treated properly.
The Roof Check walks you through what to look for from the ground in about a minute. A fair number of people who run it are told the roof has another season in it, which is the answer we would rather give than the other one.
Everything that comes off a roof lands in the gutters, and the same damp that greens a roof darkens the render below it. Booked on the same visit, these ride on a set-up already paid for.
The full set. Town pages carry a handful each; this is the lot.
It is, when the method is matched to the covering. Everything is applied at low pressure, which is exactly why a softwash suits natural slate where a pressure washer never could. We look at age, condition and fixings before anything goes on, and where a roof is better left alone we say so.
Depth decides it. Growth with real thickness has to be lifted off by hand before a treatment can reach anything underneath, so a heavily mossed roof wants both. A roof carrying only a flat film usually wants the treatment alone — which is the cheaper of the two, and we will tell you when that is your situation.
Cleared and treated properly, twelve months or more, and considerably longer on a roof that catches some sun. Nobody can honestly promise growth is gone for good — it returns anywhere the conditions suit it. What we can do is tell you roughly when another look is worth it, and that is usually a good deal further off than people brace for.
Nearly always because the roof was washed and nothing was applied afterwards. Taking away what you can see leaves the spores in the grain and the rooting in the surface layer completely untouched, and they restart at the first wet spell. Clear it and then treat it and the timescale changes entirely.
A single day covers the great majority of houses. Deep moss stretches that, because it comes off by hand before anything else happens, and a treatment-only job runs quicker. You get a realistic window at the quote stage rather than a best case, so the day is yours to plan around.
For clearing, hardly at all. For treatment it matters a great deal, because the product wants dry hours behind it to do its work. We move a date rather than apply something the evening washes off, and rescheduling has never been a problem.
It goes into the gutters, which is why clearing them out is part of finishing the job rather than something you discover a fortnight later. Where a downpipe is blocked before we arrive, you hear about it up front.
It is handled so that it is. Planting below the gutter line is soaked or sheeted before anything is applied, we keep well clear of ponds, wells and open water, and before we leave you are told how long to keep children and pets off the ground underneath. Nothing is mixed on site.
For most houses, no — the great majority of roofs we treat are reached from ground level, which is both safer and cheaper for you. Where a roofline genuinely cannot be worked from below we say so when we quote and price it openly, so nothing lands on the bill you had not agreed to.
Yes, and combining it with roof work is much the best way to have it done, because the access is already in place. Dirt, algal film and bird mess all sit between the light and the cell, so clean glass gives a panel its best chance of doing what it was installed to do.
Occasionally, and you will be told. Where tiles are cracked or slipped, cleaning shows the problem up rather than solving it, and a roofer should have the first look. We would rather point you there and keep your number for when the roof is sound than take work that leaves you no better off.
Your Eircode or nearest town, a photograph of the front and one of the back, the roof type if you happen to know it, a word about access, and which of roof cleaning, treatment, solar panels or the lot together you are thinking about. Most quotes go back the same day.
Two photographs and an Eircode turns every range on this page into an actual number.
Phone: 089-949-1525
WhatsApp: Send a couple of photos
Email: info@eireshine.ie
Send the photos and we will price it properly, tell you what it needs and what it does not, and say plainly if it can wait another season. It costs nothing to find out.
Front and rear if you can manage it. They do not need to be good photographs.
