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RoyBell's avatar
RoyBell
Explorer
Oct 23, 2017

Roof conditioning

I usually clean my roof once or twice a year. That consists of me going up with a bucket of soap and scrub brush and doing what I can. It stays indoors over winter and most of the year while not camping.

This year, the roof was really filthy and hard to clean. The darkest spots were where the steel spanned from one side of the camper to the other. Roof truss? Not sure what it's called. I scrubbed best I could with the notion of hitting it with a slightly stiffer brush and elbow grease before winter storage.

My storage place called me and said they were running a special on roof conditioning. I mentioned I had a hard time getting it clean this time and he said the would clean it up, condition it and make any repairs necessary. He told me the price would be about $300 which I thought was fair.

They did the work, only charged me $250. I checked it out afterwards (I can see from my closet window when at my house) and it didn't look any different in terms of being clean. Still had some dark spots where the trusses were. I did see some spots were new Dicor was applied. When it stops raining I will jump on the roof and look closer.

Am I expecting too much? If someone charges me to condition and clean the roof I would expect it to be like new.... or at least the dark spots be removed. I really try and maintain the camper and spend a little extra for indoor storage to keep things nice. Thoughts? Am I expecting too much?

13 Replies

  • Some stains just wont come out without damaging the material. The reason to clean is really to remove the chalking that happens from aging, UV exposure, etc, and have a clean dry surface to put conditioner on so it sticks.

    That reminds me, need to get up and wash and condition mine before it gets too cold.
  • The more you clean it, the shorter its life. Dirt has no detrimental impact on life span.
  • IMO, the only way to make it look like new, is a recoat, rather than clean/condition. If you had already cleaned it, you probably could have done the caulking yourself. For $250, if they cleaned, caulked, and conditioned, that sounds fair to me.

    Another IMO, if it stays indoors, when not in use, the conditioner should not be necessary, just a once/twice a year cleaning/caulk check.

    Jerry