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Code Blue Roof Cleaners wrote:

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I am located in Southern Indiana and am trying to get a roof cleaning business started. I am very interested in your forum and have looked around, but still have a couple of questions. If you do not rinse the chemical off, will the customer see immediate results? The next question would be is the chemical safe for the plants once it does begin to either be rinsed off by the crew or the rain. Any help that I could get would be most appreciated.

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The roof cleaning chemical we use provides immediate results w/o rinsing.

If rinsing, it is best to wait about an hour, to ensure the chemical kills the roof algae completely.
The chemical left on a roof is weakened by it's battle with the roof algae.
It usually presents little problems if left on a roof, as long as a GOOD rain falls.
If a slight rain falls, the roof cleaning chemical can be rinsed off the roof, but with insufficient rainfall to completely rinse it off the plants.
Damage can occur, under this situation, but it will not normally kill the plants, only brown or yellow the tops of some of them.
So, it is a tradeoff.
Leaving the roof cleaning chemical on the roof after cleaning provides THE longest lasting cleaning.
Rinsing right away will shorten the time the roof stays clean.
 

 

Thanks for the help, I am sure you will be hearing from me frequently, so I hope you like dealing with newbies!

I am curious, do you prefer the apple sauce over the cider, or do you like the mix of the two the best? Also, can you use these chemicals on concrete and decking?

This is an interesting mixture.  I have been using 15% SHC which works great.  What does the addition of TSP do to it?  I also saw another post of yours that mentions "YES, it WILL keep your bleach fresher longer!  SHC and Alcohol make a POTENT roof cleaning mix when combined."  I do not see any mention of alcohol here.  How does it fit in and what proportions.  I have also seen where you are adding a Green Apple ingredient to mask the smell of SHC.  Do you add it directly to the SHC or the H2O & TSP mix.  What proportions do you ad of the masking agent?  

Chris you said that you are adding a Green Apple ingredient to mask the smell of SHC.  Do you add it directly to the SHC or the H2O & TSP mix.  What proportions do you ad of the masking agent?  

glwilkerson wrote:

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hey guys,gary here from Rock Hall,MD.This is absolutely the best and most informative site for learning this bussiness!!!! Some of the terminology is new to me.What is "downsteaming"???

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Gary, downstreaming is great for pressure washing, but you'll find that it doesn't allow for a strong enough mixture for almost all roof cleaning, most of us(i think) have and use dedicated pumps, and tanks for chemicals used to clean roofs, see apple sauce or apple cider under chemicals

For roof cleaning,,  downstreaming is not the best choice.
Now, IF you insist on downstreaming, a smaller, low GPM Pressure Washer is best.
I have a friend who used to downstream roofs to clean them.
he used a cheap, 249.00 Home Depot Pressure Cleaner.
And  he also used as short a P/W hose as possible.
Even with an X Jet, it dont work too well.
A Chemical Roof Cleaning Pump is your answer.
Some of the best, most experienced roof cleaners in the USA are on this forum.
None of us downstream to clean roofs.
Your roof cleaning question is a common one, and thank you for asking it.
This is how we all learn.
By asking questions, getting good roof cleaning advice, and then acting on it 

Univar sells it by the drum. I buy it in smaller amounts.

32 ounces of isopropol alcohol at Walmart costs $1.70

Yeah, or those little 15 gallons drums would be good too.