A cleaning service, not one of the three roof paths
Soft washing
A low-pressure clean. It takes the algae and the staining off the roof and leaves nothing behind. It is not an oil, it is not a coating, and it is not a decision about which path your roof takes.
Where a wash sits next to the other three
- Roof Maxx is an oil that soaks into an asphalt shingle and gives it back some flexibility.
- Roof Coat is an acrylic elastomeric film that goes on top of the shingle and stays there.
- Replacement is a new roof.
- A wash removes something. It adds nothing, it does not change what the roof needs, and a clean roof is exactly as old as it was before we got there.
That last line is the one worth holding onto. A washed roof photographs beautifully. It has not gained a year of service life.
What we are actually taking off
Three things grow on a roof here, and homeowners tend to call all of them the same word. Algae is the flat dark staining that runs in streaks down a slope. Lichen is the gold and green spotting. Moss is the raised one, and it is the one that matters most, because it holds water against the shingle long after the roof should have dried out.
Up close it stops being a stain and starts being a thing with a grip on your roof. The lichen below is not sitting on the granules, it is down among them.
Why low pressure
Look at that last photo again and the answer is obvious. Anything with enough force to tear growth out of the granule bed takes the granules with it. Chemistry does the work instead, and the growth lets go on its own.
High pressure on an asphalt shingle strips granules, which is the opposite of what an aging roof needs. We will not blast a roof clean and hand you a shorter service life.
Rates are set per job, once we have seen the surface and how heavy the staining is. There is no flat per-square-foot price for this kind of work, and quoting one before looking would be a guess.
BriteMaxx
The branded wash line
Brite Maxx is Roof Maxx's hydrogen peroxide-based wash, and it is the product we reach for when the job calls for a branded line. Professional grade, made in the U.S., mixed with a liquid accelerator. No hot water, no pre-rinse, no high-pressure equipment. Odorless. Used on roofs, siding, masonry, and wood.
The manufacturer's literature for it is written around one thing — that the wash is safe on a shingle — which is the same reason we carry it. Nothing in that literature is a claim about service life, because a wash is not a treatment.
Product yield runs about 150 to 200 square feet per gallon depending on how heavy the staining is. That is coverage, not a price.
Brite Maxx DR
Same cleaning job, formulated to be safer for waterways. U.S. EPA Safer Choice designated. This is the one we use near ponds, lakes, storm drainage, and on HOA and commercial sites.
We wash more than composition
Composition, tile, metal, and low-slope all pick up algae in this climate, and all four come clean at low pressure. We wash all of them.
Read that for exactly what it is: our cleaning work, on your roof. It is not Roof Maxx doing something to a tile roof. Roof Maxx oil goes into asphalt shingle and nowhere else, and no amount of washing makes tile or metal a rejuvenation candidate. A clean tile roof is a clean tile roof.
What a wash will not do
- It does not restore flexibility to a dried-out shingle. That is rejuvenation.
- It does not put granules back or leave a film. That is Roof Coat.
- It does not fix a leak, a flashing, or a soft deck.
- It is not included in a Roof Maxx rejuvenation. If a roof needs washing before we treat it, that is its own line on the estimate with its own price, and you will see it before anyone starts.