Roof cleaning, moss & algae removal in County Wexford.
Moss cleared, algae and lichen killed at the root, and the roof left sound underneath. Everything you'd want to know before booking is on this page.
We work County Wexford and nowhere elseWe specialise in the roofs and houses here and know them well. Coastal salt, valley damp and Blackstairs rain each do something different, and we know which one we're looking at.
The method follows the roofConcrete tile, clay and natural slate are each a different job. We look at what's actually up there before we price.
You'll get the truth about itThat includes when a roof doesn't need doing yet, and when it needs a roofer before it needs a cleaner.
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Where the growth actually is.
A roof tile is rougher and more open than it looks from the ground. Growth sits at three depths, and only the top one shows.
Tap a number to see how deep it goes
1. On the surface
Moss cushions, leaf mould and the green film across the face of the tile. It's everything you can see from the garden, and a roof with this gone looks finished, which is why the other two layers get missed.
2. In the grain
Tile and slate both have an open texture, and algal spores settle down into it. Rain crosses the top and leaves them undisturbed. They're the seed stock for whatever grows next, which is why growth comes back on a washed roof with a full supply to draw on.
3. Into the surface layer
Moss anchors itself by threading fine rhizoids sideways through the outer skin of the tile, not down into it, which is a common misunderstanding, and it doesn't damage a sound covering. A biocide soaks into that layer and kills what's living there. A brush never gets that far.
Clearing and treating are two different jobs.
Almost everything people find confusing about roof cleaning, including why two quotes can be hundreds apart, comes back to this one distinction.
Clearing
Takes off layer 1 and leaves layers 2 and 3 behind. Done from the ground with a reach system.
Tap the drawing to replay
Treating
Reaches layers 2 and 3 and kills what's bedded in. Slower to show, but it keeps working for months afterwards, and it's the half that decides whether the growth is back next year or in several.
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How the result looks over time
Clearing shows straight away, then growth returns. Treating builds to a peak and holds.
ClearingTreating
Do you cover my town or village?
Every town and village we cover, and what its roofs are up against. Each one has a page of its own about what happens to roofs there.
Salt in the air keeps tiles damp long after the rain has stopped, so growth comes back quicker here than anywhere else in the county. Red algae turns up within a few kilometres of the sea too.
Traffic film settles over whatever's growing underneath, so a town roof often looks a lot worse than it is. It's two problems in one, and only one of them needs treating.
Moist air pushes up the valley on the south-westerlies and the sides hold it there. Roofs along here stay damp longer than roofs a few miles out on open ground, and growth follows the damp.
More rain, cleaner air and weather arriving from more than one direction. Lichen does particularly well up here, and a roof gets very few drying hours.
Hedgerow shade cuts the drying hours, overhanging trees seed a roof from above all year, and field dust settles over everything and makes a sound roof look grown-over.
Not on the list? We cover the townlands around all of these too. Send your Eircode or nearest town and we'll tell you straight away if you're in range.
The six things that grow on an Irish roof.
Between them these account for effectively every roof we're called out to look at. They look much the same from the ground and each one needs handling differently, so it's worth knowing which is which before anybody quotes you.
Moss
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 first and then needs treating. Lifting the cushions leaves the rooting behind.
Green algae
A single-celled film rather than a plant, which is why it looks flat and has no texture at all. It's usually the first thing to appear, on the pitch that sees least sun, and it's the easiest of the six to clear. Once it thickens it holds enough moisture to give moss and lichen somewhere to start, so catching it early is a smaller job.
Black algae
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, not more effort.
Red algae
Reddish and reddish-brown staining on tiles and fascia, and much more common within a few kilometres of the sea. Salt in the air holds moisture against the surface long after the rain has stopped, which is exactly the condition it wants. It's often a mixed colony with green algae, and it responds very well to treatment. A coastal roof carrying it is a straightforward job.
Lichen
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, because the covering gives way before the lichen does. What works is a treatment given the dwell time to reach it. It dies back and weathers off gradually, and we come back to check it.
Organic staining
Not one organism but the residue of years of them. Algae, spores and airborne dust colonise, die back and layer up until the roof looks generally darkened rather than visibly grown over. It's 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'll name it for you, then tell you honestly whether it's far enough along to be worth treating yet.
What we put on a roof.
You're entitled to know what's going on your house before anyone starts, so here it is in full.
The treatment
- Applied as
- Low-pressure softwash
- Bleach
- None
- pH
- Neutral
- Afterwards
- Biodegradable
- Status
- Registered for professional use in Ireland
- Duration
- Keeps working over the months after
Surfaces it is cleared for
Slate roofs
Tile roofs
Render
Pebble dash
Concrete
Block paving
Natural stone
Brick
Timber
Painted surfaces
What we do about the run-off
Everything applied to a roof ends up coming down off it, so we deal with the ground before the roof. 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 on site. Before we leave, we tell you how long to keep children and pets off the ground underneath. The garden is part of the job, and it goes back the way we found it.
How a roof job actually runs.
One visit for most houses, and you get a realistic window, not an optimistic one.
1. It starts with photographs
Three or four pictures from the ground and an Eircode is the minimum we need to price a job properly. From those we read off area, pitch, covering and how deep the growth has gone, and if there's anything we can't see, we ask rather than guess.
2. Then the roof itself
On the day, anything with depth to it comes off first, from the ground. Then the treatment goes on at low pressure, matched to the covering and left for the dwell time it needs. Heavy rain within a few hours works against it, so we'd move a date before we'd waste a product.
3. And it ends tidy
Gutters cleared of everything the roof has shed, access areas swept, and a word about anything along the roofline worth keeping an eye on. Where lichen is involved we come back once it's dried out to see how far it's gone, and that return is part of the job, not another bill.
What a roof clean costs.
Guide ranges from work we've done across the county. Find the house nearest your own.
Terrace
€350 – €500 One roof plane, a modest area, all of it reachable from the ground.Semi-detached
€400 – €600 The job we're asked to price more often than all the others put together.Detached
€600 – €800 A larger area, four elevations, and height that has to be planned around.Architectural
€800 upwards One-off designs, extra storeys and rooflines with a lot going on.These are guide ranges, not quotes. What your own roof comes to depends on 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 needs specialist access equipment. Solar panels add from €30 when they're done on the same visit as the roof. On their own they need a trip of their own and cost more. Everything's priced from photographs, and if your roof lands outside these ranges, in either direction, you'll hear that before you agree to anything.
Found the house nearest yours? Send three or four photos and an Eircode and we'll give you a figure for your own roof.
Why two similar houses price differently.
Three things explain nearly all the difference. Open any of them.
Size, pitch and what the roof is made of
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 longest. None of it is guesswork, because we can see the lot in a photograph.
How long the growth has been building
If you catch it while the growth is still a flat film, a roof takes a treatment and a rinse. Left until the moss has real depth, the clearing has to happen first so the treatment can reach anything at all, and that's where most of the gap between a low quote and a high one comes from. How long you leave it is the one part of this you control.
Access, and what else you book
Working the whole roof from ground level keeps the figure down. Bringing access equipment in raises it, and we tell you at the quote stage, not on the day. Anything else booked for the same visit, like gutters, panels or render, rides on a set-up that's already paid for, which is why combined jobs come in below the same list booked apart.
Work it out for yourself first.
Both of these are free, and both have talked people out of spending money this year.
Guide
Why moss returns
Had it done before and watched it come back?
It's the question we get asked more than any other. The guide covers 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.
Free check
Try the Roof Check
Does your roof need doing at all?
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'd rather give.
The rest of the outside of the house.
Everything that comes off a roof lands in the gutters, and the same damp that greens a roof darkens the render below it. Book them on the same visit and they ride on a set-up that's already paid for.
Everything we get asked.
The full set. Town pages carry a handful each, and this is the lot.
Is roof cleaning safe for the roof itself?
It is, when the method's matched to the covering. Everything's applied at low pressure, which is why a softwash suits natural slate where a pressure washer never could. We look at age, condition and fixings before anything goes on, and if a roof is better left alone we'll say so.
How long will it stay clear?
A roof cleared and treated properly holds twelve months or more, and considerably longer if it catches some sun. Nobody can honestly promise growth is gone for good, because it comes back anywhere the conditions suit it. What we can do is tell you roughly when another look is worth it, and that's usually a lot further off than people expect.
Is it safe for the garden, the dog and the children?
Yes, and we handle it that way on purpose. 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're told how long to keep children and pets off the ground underneath. Nothing is mixed on site.
What do you need in order to quote?
Your Eircode or nearest town, three or four photographs from the ground covering the front and back, the roof type if you know it, a word about access, and whether you're thinking about roof cleaning, treatment, solar panels or the lot together. Most quotes go back the same day.
How do I know whether I need clearing, treating, or both?
Depth decides it. Growth with real thickness has to come off before a treatment can reach anything underneath, so a heavily mossed roof needs both. A roof with only a flat film usually needs the treatment alone, which is the cheaper of the two. We'll tell you if that's your situation.
Why did it come back so quickly last time?
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 untouched, and they restart at the first wet spell. Clear it, then treat it, and the timescale changes.
How long does the work take?
One day covers most houses. Deep moss stretches that, because it has to come off before anything else happens, and a treatment-only job runs quicker. You get a realistic window at the quote stage, not a best case, so you can plan the day around it.
Does the weather decide when you can come?
For clearing, hardly at all. For treatment it matters a lot, because the product needs dry hours behind it to do its work. We'll move a date before we apply something the evening washes off, and people are usually glad we did.
What happens to everything that comes off the roof?
It goes into the gutters, which is why clearing the runs out is part of finishing the job, not something you find a fortnight later.
Will you need scaffolding or a cherry picker?
For most houses, no. Most of the roofs we treat are reached from ground level, which is safer and cheaper for you. Where a roofline genuinely can't be worked from below, we say so when we quote and price it openly, so you know what the access adds before you decide.
Do you clean solar panels too?
Yes, and doing it with the roof is the best way, 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.
Is there a point where a roof is past cleaning?
Occasionally, and we'll tell you. Where tiles are cracked or slipped, cleaning shows the problem up rather than fixing it, and a roofer should have the first look. We'd rather point you there and keep your number for when the roof is sound than take work that leaves you no better off.
Get a figure for your own roof.
Three or four photographs and an Eircode turn every range on this page into an actual number.
Talk to us
Phone: 089-949-1525
WhatsApp: Send a few photos
Email: info@eireshine.ie
- Mon–Fri08:30 – 19:30
- Saturday10:00 – 18:30
- Sunday12:00 – 18:30
Rather know than wonder?
Send the photos and we'll price it properly, tell you what it needs and what it doesn't, and say plainly if it can wait another season. It costs nothing to find out.
Front and rear if you can manage it. They don't need to be good photographs.