7 Dos and Don’ts When Cleaning Your Roof in St. Louis, MO

When you own a home, one of the things that is somewhat implied in terms of your ownership is the upkeep of the exterior as well as the interior — despite the fact that some people unfortunately allow their homes to fall into disrepair.

Part of this implication is that you should make sure to have a clean roof — the thing above your head that prevents foul weather from getting in as well as any stranger from dropping in unannounced.

Keeping a clean roof isn’t just about aesthetics — there are certain kinds of mess that, if on your roof, can actually cause long term damage to it.

With that being the case, here are seven dos and don’ts when cleaning your roof in St. Louis, MO.

1. Do Remove Leaves When You Can

Leaves are lovely but they are better off when they are either on the ground spread about or in a pile somewhere, slowly being made into compost.

The one place they do not belong ever is sitting on your roof — that is quite a bad combination!

If you allow leaves to accumulate on the roof, they could get possibly moist and over time cause damage to the roof.

2. Do Spend Time Preparing

As tempting as it might be to jump right into the roof cleaning project, you should first and foremost make sure to plan out what you are going to do.

It’s far better to first make sure you know how much roof you have to cover, as it were, and to know that you are ready for the techniques that you will be employing to clean the roof as well as the equipment required to do so.

3. Do Not Pressure Wash The Roof

This is a case of a little bit too much going a long way to possibly destroy part of your roof.

You may be familiar with the power of pressure washing from having seen videos of what it can do online and therefore think that it would be perfect for cleaning your roof.

This is not the case, however — it might do a great job cleaning your roof, but it might also blow pieces of your roof right off of the building and tumbling down to the ground.

4. Do Be Careful With The Ladder

Of course you are surely aware that it’s important to be careful when you are going up a ladder, but you may not be aware of the extent to which you have to be careful.

The top of the ladder, for example, is not the ideal place to ever stand when you are trying to do just about anything other than trying to show people how to use a ladder unsafely.

It is better to climb up to near the top of the ladder but to stick to the rungs below the next to last one — and it is even better when you have someone stabilizing the ladder on the ground below.

5. Do Not Stand On The Roof

For the most part, you are going to want to avoid standing on the roof unless you have good reason to believe that it is going to support your weight and not break.

There are many ways for you to clean the roof without actually getting up on it, and it would be far better for you to do so than to risk something happening while you are up there — or even the possibility of you having a fall off of the roof.

6. Do Trim Trees If You Have Time

While you are up by the side of your home, you should consider trimming the trees that are near to the house.

The branches might look innocent enough, but you can take a lot of damage from the branches if a strong wind kicked up and caused the branches to rub up against the roof.

7. Do Not Leave Dirty Gutters If Possible

It’s possible that when you’re up by the roof cleaning it, you will notice that the gutters are a bit full and though of course it is a thing that could take awhile to clean, it’s worth doing.

Having dirty gutters is the kind of thing that could cause long term damage to the foundation of your home and might even damage your roof if the gutters become heavy enough from the muck that can accumulate inside to pull it all down.

We would love the opportunity to be your go-to exterior painter in St. Louis, MO. Call us at 314-582-5272 to book a FREE estimate, and let us help you enhance the interior of your home so you can focus on other things.

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