If you have a lot of moss on your roof, then you could have a problem. This growth can cause some damage that affects both your roofing materials and your home. How does moss damage roofs?
1. Moss Holds Moisture
To survive and grow, moss needs to absorb and hold water. So, when it rains, moss retains some of this water for future use. However, this also means that moss holds water against your roofing materials. They will become damp and stay damp. This affects the integrity of some materials. For example, wood and asphalt shingles shouldn't be permanently wet. These materials degrade faster in moist conditions and could start to break down. Plus, if you have any gaps or holes in your roof, moisture could start coming into your roof space. You could have problems with internal dampness, rot, and mold growth. The longer moss stays on your roof, the more it will spread and cause damage.
2. Moss Roots Cause Damage
Moss doesn't just sit on a roof. It uses its roots to latch onto the surface to give it a secure hold. These roots can cause some problems as moss embeds and grows. For example, roots will naturally move toward existing gaps in the structure. If they can find a crack or crevice, then they lodge in these spaces. Even if your roof doesn't currently have any of these spaces, roots can create their own gaps. They can move roofing materials. So, for example, they can make shingles move up and out of place or break them to create the spaces they need.
Once moss takes hold, it grows and expands. It will make the holes bigger. Your roof will be more likely to leak. You might need to fill in cracks and crevices or even replace shingles to make the roof sound again. So, it makes sense to clear moss off your roof fast. If you don't, you'll have to pay for more repair work over time.
While you can clean moss off your roof yourself, this isn't necessarily a good move. You might cause more damage if you don't use the right cleaning process; you might not remove unseen growth that has embedded itself in cracks. You should contact a roofing contractor and ask them to do this job. They can remove all the moss from your roof safely without causing accidental damage. Plus, they can check your roof after cleaning to assess if the moss has caused any additional damage. If it has, they can fix it before it gets worse and leaves you with a large repair bill.
Contact a local roofer to learn more.