How often do you clean or treat you roof.

Huntindog wrote:

ScottG wrote:
Almost never. Washing only shortens the life span by removing part of the white protective layer.
I inspect it several times a year ans so far, I have only had to touch up a couple of spots of caulking.

We have a winner!!

Many years ago I looked into this. I actually posted about my findings here on this forum at that time.

Dicor on their website had a FAQ section... And roof washing was one of their top questions. Back then Dicor frowned on roof washing. Said it was not necessary. If one really wanted to do it, they could using either spic and span or Murphys oil soap... I forget which one.

Dicor said that Carlise made the roofing for them to their specifications (likely rolls of the width needed for RVs)

So I went to the Carlise website. At that time they were the largest manufacturer of the stuff, and it was originally made for commercial buildings. It came in two colors. Black or white. The warranty did NOT require washing it... They said that the only reason to wash it, would be if one wanted to maintain the reflectivity of the white version. The stuff is impervious to dirt, mold etc... In fact their website actually had a picture featuring a building with a live roof.. Plants, grasses etc. growing on a roof of a large commercial building... Under the live roof was the roof membrane.

Years later, and Dicor has changed their tune about roof washing... Oh the material hasn't changed any. They just kept getting questions from RVers wanting to wash their roofs... So they recognized a buisiness opportunity and came up with a product to do it.

The bottom line is that it isn't needed.

In fact it can be dangerous. Soap and water on a roof that is 10-12 feet in the air... Pretty slippery to be on it. The fall is gonna hurt if you slip off of it.