Negosentro | How does moss affect a homeowners roof | If you are the owner of a house, you know how important it is to pay attention to the maintenance of the roof. Proper ventilation is very important for the roof; if there is any minor issue like water leakage, missing shingles, or any other problem, you should address it at the earliest possible time.
Any negligence in the roof maintenance might cause you a big loss that leads to the replacement of the roof according to most roofing companies in St. Louis Missouri. In addition, there are a lot of issues that might develop due to poor ventilation of the roof, like unwanted growth, water leakage, excess moisture, rusting, mold development, and many more.
What is moss?
Moss is a very common green layer developed on the roof’s surface due to the excess moisture and other favorable climate conditions. Moss development above a certain limit might disturb the strength of the roof. Unfortunately, some people do not pay attention to the maintenance of the roof regularly, which results in excess moss development.
There are mixed opinions related to the development of moss. Some people consider that it is not harmful to their roof and let it grow freely. At the same time, some people remove it in the very initial stage.
Is moss harmful or not?
Moss is a non-vascular flower growth on the roof. Although the moss requires damp, shady dark environmental conditions to grow properly, some people consider it not harmful as it is non-vascular and does not have sharp roots. Therefore, it absorbs moisture from the surroundings and grows freely.
Moss growth above a certain limit is not safe; it should be removed. In addition, the excess moisture on the roof might cause missing shingles and rust on the metal roof.
Effects of the moss on the roof:
There are some possible ways through which moss can affect the roof’s surface. First, it might cause structural damage to the roof.
Moss is a spongy non-vascular growth on the surface of the roof. It absorbs excess moisture from the surrounding. As a result, it keeps the roof wet all the time. The wet roof might result in the rooting of the wooden roof or missing shingles, or rust development on the metal roof.
The continuous moisture lock underneath the roof tiles affects the roof’s strength. In addition, the roof’s structural integrity reduces a lot due to the moisture.
It is always recommended to have highly pitched roofs so that the excess water of the rain glides frim the roof easily and there is no water retention on the roof. The reason is that moss development acts as an obstacle to water flow, and moisture gets trapped in moss, resulting in excess water on the roof.
The moss developed on the roof traps in the pipes and affects the house’s water drainage system.
Due to the reasons mentioned above, it is advised to remove the excessive growth of the moss. There are several methods through which the moss can be removed.
How do you avoid the growth of moss on the roof?
Copper ridges are the material that you can install on your roof. During heavy rainfall, the water flows through these ridges easily and is not trapped easily. These ridges do not provide suitable moisture conditions for the growth of the moss; hence the moss growth can be avoided.
Proper cleaning of the roof from time to time keeps the roof all dry so that moss growth can be prohibited. Also, if any missing shingle or maintenance is required on the roof, you should address it quickly. Proper maintenance ensures the long life span of the roof.
If there is any unnecessary moss growth development on the roof, you should clean it so that it will save you from future inconvenience. There are a lot of chemicals available in the market for the cleaning of the moss from the roof. However, never use very harsh chemicals on the roof that disturb the roof’s structural integrity.
Conclusion:
Excess to everything is bad. Never let any unwanted growth allow to develop on your roof that disturbs the roof’s structure. In some areas, there are more favorable conditions for developing the moss-like heavy rains and shady places; the moss development in those areas is comparatively more.
So it should be removed regularly so that excess growth might not disturb the roof integrity. Any unwanted growth like Mold, rust pest or moss should be removed continuously. It will help in boosting the life of your roof.