Strength of Roof and Solar Install question

Newbiecampers wrote:
I went up on the roof to wash it. As I was on my hands and knees scrubbing...

Newbie,

I don't mean to single you out as MANY people clean/wash their roof, but I do question the wisdom of doing that.

We spent last weekend at a RV park near Austin, TX. While we were out running errands, a big Super C pulled in beside us. By the time we got back, he was pretty well hooked up and had a rug and chairs out and fancy matching color tire covers on the front and rear wheels.

As we pulled in, he was up of the RV roof with a push broom and was sweeping all of the roof "dirt" over the side.

I have a weather station up on a 15 foot pole over the RV and later he came over to ask me about it. At the end of THAT conversation, I asked him why he had covers over his tires and wheels.

He told me that the covers protect the tires from the sun's UV rays and that UV will cause the rubber tires to age and crack.

I asked him what protects his rubber roof from the sun now that he has swept off all of whatever was up there blocking the sun.

He shrugged, turned, and walked off.

Seems to me that nearly all roofs are made from rubber, plastic film, or fiberglass. We probably all know that the worst thing we can do to those materials is to expose them to the sun. The sun will degrade and destroy those materials. Have you ever seen a tire that has been laying in a field for a while. The sun side is all cracked and aged and the side that is face down in the dirt looks brand new.

I may be wrong, but I don't and won't clean my roof. And scrubbing or sweeping creates micro-scratches that will age the surface even more. We don't wash our cars with a scrub brush.

To each his own.

Tim