Archive for the ‘Roof Maintenance’ Category

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Moss, Debris, and What to Expect in the Great NW

May 10th, 2012 by John Carter

Watch Patrick Morin and Ernest Murry as they look at a common scene here in the Great North West.

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Script

“This is Patrick and Ernest Roof Life of Oregon we’re on a 5 year old presidential asphalt shingle in Lake Oswego. This used to be all shake in here and people have been switching over to an asphalt shingle thinking that it’s going to get them out of maintenance. As we look at this roof this is the type and kind of moss that is a shingle eating moss. There are three varieties. You’ve got the roly poly kind that likes to form on the ends of the shingles. It forms a wedge and tries to break the seal of the shingle. Then you have this type which is the leafy furry ever invasive type (of) moss. And it is actually eating the asphalt shingle right off the fiberglass matt. So if this is left like this this, it’s going to take this 50 year roof and make it a 15 year roof really fast. So what we’re going to do with this roof, we’re going to first just check all of the components and then gently remove the moss and put a treatment on here that will keep it from coming back for 3 full years. If they have a debris issue which you can see by the chimney chase, obviously there are debris issues we can maintain this with compressed air on an annual basis and then just treat this thing. This is roof maintenance in the great North West. Patrick and Ernest Roof Life of Oregon.”

Does your roof resemble the one in the video?


Fill out a maintenance request form to save your roof before it’s to late!

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Posted by John Carter Posted in Architectural Shingles, Debris, Moss, Roof Cleaning, Roof Maintenance, Roof Materials, Roofing | No Comments »


Roof Leaks: What a Leaking Roof Might Be Trying To Tell You

February 3rd, 2012 by John Carter

Have a leak in your roof? Get an honest and professional answer as to what is causing your roof leak. Watch Daniel White as he describes to us the surprise he found when investigating a leak for a homeowner in Cornelius.

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Script:

“Today we’re out in Cornelius looking at a valley on this roof. We thought initially it was the debris that was backing up inside this valley (causing a leak) but it is not. A couple of things are going on here. One the roof has two layers. Two when the homeowner bought the house it already had this roof and they didn’t realize whoever put the roof on completely installed this roof wrong. There’s an area called a nailing zone, you have to hit that nailing zone with your nails or the roof is just not going to function right.

I’m going to show you what we noticed right away. This part of the shingle started pulling out. These are called the dragon teeth. What’s happening is there are no nails holding this part on. There’s a nailing zone right here where this line is. This line is where the nail should be. If there had been a nail here this piece would have never slid out but they are. So now the water is feeding back in behind the shingle running back in behind this piece of metal and finding that second layer of roofing and leaking on the inside. We did find some nails on this roof though, way up at the top of the shingle, completely wrong. Every shingle has about 3 nails, here, there there’s one over there all those nails should have been right along that line, minimum of 4 nails. They didn’t (install them correctly) they put them up here and this entire roof is installed incorrectly so there is absolutely no warranty on this roof and unfortunately this homeowner really needs to replace this roof.”

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Posted by John Carter Posted in Debris, Roof Leaks, Roof Maintenance, Roofing | No Comments »


Copper / Zinc Strip Failure – Moss in the Portland Area

June 15th, 2011 by John Carter
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We’re on a 7 year old asphalt shingle roof. This is actually the best I have ever seen a copper or zinc strip work. This is actually copper so it matches the color of the house so you can see that it kept the moss off for about 5 rows and then it starts growing on there and you can see how heavy it (the moss) gets as the farther away from the zinc or copper strip.

This copper strip seems to be working a lot better than the zinc strips that I’ve seen. Of course underneath the trees it gets pretty bad, and this moss will actually destroy this roof. It will eat it and lift it and cause it to leak in half the time if it was maintained or was in an area where there wasn’t moss problems.

Also, in an area of debris, you can’t let this happen. This will rot out the shingles and this intersection here would be compromised if this was not maintained. Of course we are looking at the north side and you can see all the way across the roof that for the first two or three feet that copper is working really well. Then as the copper oxide runs out of energy the moss starts growing.

Roof Life of Oregon does roof maintenance on all types of roofing. This is an example of a 40 year architectural laminated shingle 5-7 years old growing quite a bit of a moss so we are going to help this client.

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Posted by John Carter Posted in Debris, Moss, Roof Cleaning, Roof Maintenance, Roofing | No Comments »


Moss Prevention Done Right – Properly Maintained Roofs in Portland

June 10th, 2011 by Patrick Morin

I’m up here in Forest Heights in Portland Oregon and we are looking at a 15 year old shake roof.

This client has used our service when the roof was 5 and when the roof was 10 and next year will be its renewal year on its 15th year actually it will be 16 next year because we waited a year after it was on. But what you will note on this roof is how heat and light reflective it is, that is the natural color of cedar when it does not have any growth on it. When the rains hit it, the resiliency of cedar and if it’s not punky and a lot growth and moss on it making it punky and soft, It’s got a hard shell on it and water runs off it quite quickly and ends up down and off and in the gutter system.

You will always see the definition of lines because the roof of course is staying rock hard. and as we scan this roof here you will note that it is also heat and light reflective. So it is not black with black fungus and moss absorbing a ton of heat which then rots and dry rots the shake. It is actually staying pretty cool, you could go put your hand on that on an 80 degree day and hold it there but a traditional black roof you couldn’t a black fungus roof that is kind of like a charcoal gray. That’s unique I’m up on a roof here looking down one of our clients. This is a tile roof that is also 14 years old. You can see they have done a solar panel system it looks like maybe a 4-6 kilowatt system, there’s also one panel over here. And this tile roof we have treated twice. This is what it looks like. This is a north side after 3 years and this is a pretty bad spring and there’s not any growth on it at all it is beautiful.

So this roof you could simply retreat and gutters are dirty, we’ll do a gutter clean on it. This is how you maintain a roof in Portland, the cleaning of the roofs are done by the products we use unless of course there is tree debris and you want your roof to look good, and to work right and to last longer and those three things we feel bring you peace of mind concerning your roof.

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Posted by Patrick Morin Posted in Moss, Roof Maintenance, Roofing | 2 Comments »


Roof Cleaning – Portland’s “Must Do” Home Maintenance Task

May 18th, 2011 by Patrick Morin

In the greater Portland, Oregon area we get a lot of crud on our rooftops. About half of our cleaning jobs are to remove tree debris from the evergreens towering over or nearby a home, or your neighbor’s flowering broadleaf tree that seems to reach over and upward. The other half of our cleaning efforts are spent on the roofs that get that amazing growth combo called black fungus and moss.

Portland’s combination of growth and debris eats roofs. It causes them to leak prematurely.

On composition roofs (asphalt shingles) the moss is invasive enough to get under the shingles and break the seal allowing the water to get to the nails where it can find its way into your home or rust away the fasteners, eventually leading to a bigger roof failure. In addition there are some types of moss that will eat the roofing material requiring premature re-roofing.

On Tile roofs the moss actually dissolves the concrete! When this very unsightly moss action is combined with tree debris build-up you have the perfect recipe for roof-top trouble. As it matures and decays, it feeds into the closed valleys on your roof. This has caused some major leaks in a lot of high end homes as the water is diverted out of the valley metal by a cement-like sand bar.

If black fungus is allowed to grow on a cedar shake roof it will create an environment that is perfect for the moss. Moss retains a ton of moisture and eats the wood. Wet rot is caused by retained moisture. Debris, fungus and moss are the reasons.

Cleaning the roof of these 3 culprits will add years to your roof’s life. Whenever possible keep roofs of all types free of these trouble makers by doing annual cleaning using compressed air and 3-5 yr. treatments that will cleanse current fungus and moss growth and keep potential growth at bay. Of course we use only environmentally safe, long lasting products by Dennco Chem.

Got any of these yuckies and nasties on YOUR roof? We can help. We do FREE roof maintenance inspections that will tell you exactly what is going on and how much it will cost to make it great. Click here to get started.

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Posted by Patrick Morin Posted in Moss, Roof Cleaning, Roof Maintenance, Roofing | 1 Comment »


Roof Life of Oregon’s Curb Appeal Assessment

March 28th, 2011 by Jesse Liebman

Spring has officially started, March 20th, and Roof Life of Oregon has teamed up with our sister company 1st Oregon Exteriors to ensure your home has the maximum curb appeal possible.  From the top of your home (the roof) to the landscaping that surrounds it, we’ve got our suggestions to make your home pop.

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Posted by Jesse Liebman Posted in Roof Maintenance, Roof Replacement, Roofing | 2 Comments »


Gutter Debris: Special Finger Painting Gutter Ooze

February 4th, 2011 by Jesse Liebman

Special finger painting gutter ooze has been identified as the suspect in a recent house splattering incident. Dan K. sent us a complaint through Yelp stating:

My neighbor had their roof cleaned by Roof Life of Oregon. I went out to see how the job was being done and to make sure my house wouldn’t get splattered. Didn’t think there would be a problem because of the distance between the houses. Wrong! Went back out later and found debris from my neighbor’s roof splattered all over the side of my house from the top floor to the ground – somehow splattering the crud even higher on my house than the height of the single story house he was working on . . .

What Dan doesn’t take into account is when we clean a roof we also clean out all of the gutters. ‘Splattering crud’ is inevitable as we explain, with your mind in the gutter, the problem with gutter debris.

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Posted by Jesse Liebman Posted in Debris, Gutters | No Comments »


DIY: Roof Leak Band-Aid

December 22nd, 2010 by Jesse Liebman

Winter is officially here and now is the time of year when weather related roofing problems occur. Are you prepared if a roof leak occurs without warning? Roof leaks can appear at any time and your home’s well being is dependent upon on how calm and quick you respond to the problem.

What does a major roof leak problem look like from inside your home?

If your ceiling looks like this, or you can visibly see a wet spot that is getting larger, then you have a major roof leak problem.

If you’re not able to get someone out to your home to take care of your roof leak what are you going to do, let it ruin your entire home? We recommend having a 10×10 tarp, ice pick, large bucket and hand towel grouped together in case a major roof leak arises.

Here is our DIY roof leak band-aid process we recommend:

  1. Locate the visible area on the ceiling where the leak is coming from.
  2. Place your 10×10 tarp underneath the leak area.
  3. Place your large bucket on top of the tarp, directly underneath the leak area, and place your hand towel in the bucket to prevent splashing.
  4. Position your chair or step ladder underneath the leak area.
  5. Using your ice pick, gently pierce the ceiling material to allow the collected water to escape without causing further damage.

If this is done in a timely manner, the process of funneling the water into the bucket will keep the water from collecting in your ceiling and causing more damage in your home. This will afford you time to have a professional come inspect and repair the roof leak.

Don’t let a major leak ruin your home. With our step-by-step process you can turn a roof leak from an emergency into a manageable problem.

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Posted by Jesse Liebman Posted in Roof Leaks | No Comments »


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