Facing the Blackstairs you get more rain and cleaner air than the rest of the county, and lichen loves both. It is the most stubborn thing we treat, and the one where a heavy hand does the most harm.
Worth knowing before anyone sets foot on a slate roof that has been up there a hundred years.
What goes on above has to come down somewhere, so the ground is dealt with first. Planting below the gutter line is soaked or sheeted before anything is applied, and we keep a wide margin from ponds and open water. You will be told, before we pack up, how long to keep children and pets off the ground underneath. Nothing is mixed anywhere on site. The garden is part of the job, not something that happens to be near it, and it is left as we found it.
Both halves matter on a roof that has been up here since before the house had electricity.
The biocide soaks into the surface layer where the lichen holdfast and the moss rooting actually sit. Nothing is scrubbed and nothing is forced. The product reaches a depth no amount of effort from outside ever could, and then it is given the time to do its work.
No stripping, no driving water under the laps, no attacking a bonded growth with force. The whole point of working this way is that the covering comes through the day as we found it, and on a hundred-year-old slate that is the single most important thing about the job.
Up here, half the skill is in choosing the right day for it.
We take stock of the covering and its age, how far into the surface the lichen has bonded, and how much weather the roof takes. A roof facing the Blackstairs is a different proposition to one in a sheltered garden.
The treatment goes on diluted and at low pressure so that it lands where it is aimed. If the wind is up on this side of the county, we come back another day instead.
The ground below is rinsed off, the gutters are emptied, and a follow-up is arranged to see how far the lichen has gone once it has dried out. That return visit is part of the job.
Useful no matter who ends up doing the work.
Ask each of them specifically how they intend to deal with lichen. It is the growth where a thorough job and a hurried one part company, and the answers tell you far more than the figures.
The Roof Check walks you through what to look for from the ground in a minute or so. On an exposed roof it is worth running before you commit to a date.
We cover Kiltealy, Ballindaggin and Killanne, up the slopes facing the Blackstairs where the rain comes in hardest.
Exposed render and old field-boundary walls grow the same lichen the roof does, and it comes off them the same patient way.
Mostly about lichen, and mostly good questions.
Not the way we do it. Everything is applied at low pressure, which is exactly why a softwash suits slate where a pressure washer never could. We assess age, fixings and condition first, so nothing goes ahead on a roof that is not up to it.
Occasionally, and we will say so. Where tiles are cracked or slipped, cleaning shows up problems rather than solving them, and you want a roofer before a cleaner. 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.
People do, and the two things that catch them out are the ladder and the pressure washer — one is the risk, the other is the damage. If you are going to try it, do it from the ground and leave the washer in the shed. Or send a photo and we will tell you honestly whether it is even worth paying anyone for yet.
Fully insured, and we are happy to show the paperwork before any work starts. It is a fair thing to ask any contractor, and anyone reluctant to answer it is telling you something.
What it is, how long it wants on the roof, and why soaking into the surface beats working at it from outside. The main roof cleaning page has the whole of it.
About the product, the pressure or the timing. Nothing about the method is a secret.
Phone: 089-949-1525
WhatsApp: Send a couple of photos
Email: info@eireshine.ie
Send a photograph or two and you will get a plain answer. Either it is sound enough to treat now, or a roofer should look first. Knowing which is worth having either way.
Photographs, and any idea of how old the slate is.
