Roof Cleaning Equipment

Usually yes. Both the skyVac skyScraper and the Pure Freedom RoofMaster mount on a standard male euro thread, which is the same fitting your water fed brush uses, so a pole already on the van will normally take one straight off. The skyScraper is confirmed on the FaceLift Phantom, Renegade and Phoenix. The RoofMaster comes with adapters for common water fed poles. Worth checking the pole itself rather than only the thread, though: a pole rated for a 300 gram brush head is doing a different job when you are pulling a loaded scraper down a roof, and a lightweight window cleaning pole will flex more than you expect. If your pole is at the light end, buying a scraper and pole bundle usually works out better than replacing a broken section later.

Match the blade to the shape of the tile, not to the roof material. The blades are cut to sit down into the contour of a specific tile so the edge stays in contact all the way down, and a blade that only touches the high points will skate over the moss sitting in the valleys. Both systems cover the tiles you meet most on UK housing: Anchor Bold Roll, Marley Double Roman, Ludlow Major, Ludlow Plus, Mendip and Wessex, Redland Grovebury, Regent and Renown, and a flat blade for plain tiles and slate. RoofMaster blades are sold individually or as a full set of ten, and skyScraper blades are stocked as replacements, with a flat nylon option for surfaces where steel would be too harsh. If you do not know what you are looking at, photograph the tile end on from the ground and compare the curve, because the profile is much easier to identify from the side than from above.

Blades cut moss off and brushes scrub it off, and the right answer depends on the state of the tile. A blade is faster and clears thick established moss in fewer passes, so it is the default on a sound concrete tile. Brushes suit older tiles that have started to soften or spall, glazed and smooth tiles where a blade can chatter, and any roof where the customer is nervous about tile damage. The skyScraper Speedi set gives you ten brush profiles on the same head, and the skySweeper is a narrow sweeper for flat tiles and the ridge line. Plenty of cleaners carry both and change over partway through a job, which is the practical reason the heads are sold separately from the blades.

Around 20ft covers the gutter line on a standard two storey house, but a roof is not the gutter line, and you need enough pole to reach the ridge. On a typical two storey pitched roof that means 25ft to 30ft to work the whole slope from the ground. The Renegade scraper bundle comes in 20ft, 25ft and 30ft for that reason. Bear in mind that a telescopic pole gets noticeably harder to control at full extension with a head on the end, so if most of your work is two storey it is worth having a little more reach than the minimum rather than working at the limit all day. Standing further back from the wall also lets you pull at a better angle, which does more for your speed than extra length does.

You can, but it is the wrong tool for most pitched tiled roofs. High pressure strips the surface off concrete tiles and drives water up under the laps, and the damage does not show until the customer rings about a leak. Pressure work belongs on render, flat roofs, hard standing and surfaces that can take it, which is what the Power Pole range is built for: the FaceLift Phantom Power Pole extends 6 to 30ft and takes up to 280 bar, with a Twin Turbo Jet attachment rated to 250 bar on machines over 21 litres a minute. For a pitched tiled roof, scrape the moss off dry and softwash afterwards if the customer wants the staining treated. Note that power poles need a pressure washer to run and do not come with one.

They do different jobs and they work well together rather than competing. Scraping removes the moss that is physically there, and the roof looks clean the same day. Softwashing applies a chemical at low pressure and works on what is left over the following weeks, which is what deals with staining and slows the regrowth. The usual order on a paid job is to scrape first and treat afterwards, because putting chemical onto thick moss mostly wastes it. The Chemical Applicator upgrade kit converts a FaceLift pole for this with a nozzle, 30m of pole hose and an angle neck, so you are not buying a second pole to do it. The algaecide we stock for it is V-TUF D-Green, which V-TUF list for roofing and say holds regrowth back for up to six months. Which chemical suits the job still depends on the surface and the staining, so it is worth a call before you commit to a treatment on a customer's roof.

No. Carbon fibre and aluminium poles conduct electricity, and the warning on our own Renegade bundle says so plainly: do not use near electrical lines. A 30ft pole reaches further than people judge by eye, and overhead service cables into a house are often much closer to the roof line than they look from the ground. Walk the property before you extend anything, note where the supply comes in, and work away from it. The same applies to a wet pole in a softwash setup, where the water column is another path. If a roof cannot be worked safely from the ground clear of the cable, that is a job to turn down or to refer, not one to reach for.