Keeping Your Roof Moss-free - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Matt Swanson from Guardian Roofing. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Megan Ellsworth: Hello everyone. Welcome back to an AskARoofer minisode. I'm so excited. We're going to be talking about keeping your roof moss free. And I'm here with Matt Swanson from Guardian Roofing. Hello, Matt.

Matt Swanson: Hello. Thanks for having me.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. Let's just start out, have you tell us a little bit about you and Guardian.

Matt Swanson: Sure. So my name is Matt Swanson, my wife, Lori, and I founded Guardian back in 2005.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow.

Matt Swanson: And we are a residential roofing and repair business along with gutters and insulation. And since our company's inception, we've done a lot of roof maintenance. Keeping roofs free of debris, and of course moss proofing people's roofs. So it's a subject that we're well aware of.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. Yeah, especially being in Washington, that's where ... that's like the moss capital.

Matt Swanson: Yeah, yeah. You got to keep it from growing on just about everything.

Megan Ellsworth: Everything. Okay, so why is moss problematic? And what can homeowners look for if they are inspecting the roof and maybe they see something that looks-

Matt Swanson: Sure, sure. So I think I'll start with the second question first.

Megan Ellsworth: Got it.

Matt Swanson: The best way to not have a moss problem is to prevent it from the beginning. And that's through doing routine maintenance on your roof. And specifically, just keeping it free of debris. Typically, there's a lot of steep roofs up here in the Northwest, but a lot of them, you can walk on, or you're going to hire a professional to do that. A nice blower, just keep the debris off, keep the debris out of the gutters. Because the dirt and the debris is really the source that the moss grows in to begin with. So if you can keep your roof free of that at least once a year, it'll prolong the time until moss actually starts to grow.

So the reason that moss is a problem is because once it roots in that dirt and debris that lands on the roof over the years, it goes further and actually roots in the granules of the shingles.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh.

Matt Swanson: So shingles are simple. It's a fiberglass mat saturated with asphalt. And then on top of that mat, they put the granules, they give the roof its color. And also they're there to protect the asphalt from getting baked from the sun. So when that moss roots in those granules, there just about isn't anything you can do to take that moss off that isn't going to take the granules with it. Which is why you want to get it on there, you want to get it off of there as quick as possible. Because the more that those granules get pulled away, then even if the mat of the shingle isn't exposed right, then the sun is going to bake away at that. And then over time, water will actually saturate into that fiberglass mat.

The other thing about moss is it typically gathers first right at the butt edge of the shingle. So over time, it will actually push the shingle above it up and then you have a nice little water absorbing sponge next to a shingle that's pushed up and it can cause water over time to go sideways and fine nails and just wreak all kinds of havoc. So there really is no good part about having moss on your roof. You really should keep it from growing, and if it's on there, you got to get it off as quick as possible.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. So how does a homeowner keep it from growing on their roof?

Matt Swanson: Well, if you're doing annual maintenance, that's the best way you can do it. There are products out there, DIY products, Moss Out, there's a million different names. You just want to watch because a lot of those are actually kind of corrosive.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay.

Matt Swanson: So over time, someone who's really up on their maintenance and doing a great job, applying that stuff every year, it can start to have a degrading effect on flashings and nails and stuff like that over the years. So you just got to be careful of the corrosive nature. But that's a good way to do it. It's good to ... you can hire a professional like us, we come out. We have a lot of customers that we do annual maintenance for, and every three or four years there's a treatment that we put on-

Megan Ellsworth: Okay.

Matt Swanson: That will keep moss from growing. Those are pretty much the different ways that you can go about it.

Megan Ellsworth: Awesome. Well, Matt, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. If there's anyone out there in the Auburn, Washington area, go check out Guardian Roofing. And especially if you need moss removal or a new roof or anything, they will be your helping hand in that situation. So this has been super informational. Thank you, Matt.

Matt Swanson: Well, thanks so much for having me. We really appreciate the opportunity to help.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. I'll be seeing all of you next time on the next AskARoofer minisode.