If your home is your castle, then your roof is your best defense against invaders. Water, snow, ice, mold and mildew are all enemies waiting for their opportunity to strike. Protecting the integrity of your roof is critical to protecting the investment you’ve made in your home.
Whether your roof is two years old or twenty years old, you should inspect your roof every spring, and if you live in cold climates, do second inspection check in the fall. The best preventative maintenance you can do to extend the useful life of your roof is to perform semi-annual inspections and identify problems when they arise.
If only it could be so easy! Cleaning your roof is a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Your home’s roof takes more abuse from the weather and elements than any other component of your home. Preventative maintenance saves money and gives you a longer roof service life. This guide will show you how to keep your roof in roofing outer banks nc the best possible working condition.
A Word on Roof Maintenance and Safety
Binoculars are the safest way to check your roof. In most cases, you can see everything you need to right from the ground. If you can, use a window cleaning brush to reach eaves, joinery and wall cladding.
If you do have to use a ladder to inspect and clean parts of your roof, make sure the ladder is taller than the roofline by at least two feet. That way, if the ladder slides left or right, it will still remain on the roof line.
Also, if you drive a long stake or piece of rebar into the ground behind the ladder, this will prevent it from sliding backwards while you are on it. Never lean over the side of a ladder to reach other parts of the roof. Get down and move the ladder.

A few additional roof maintenance safety precautions include:
Always take safety seriously when performing roof cleaning and maintenance.
If you decide to go onto your roof, and your roof has more than 15 degrees of pitch, use a roof ladder. It’s nearly impossible to stop yourself before you reach the edge if you slip and fall on a steeply pitched roof.
If you can’t reach sections with a roof ladder (hipped roof or dormer windows are examples) you need to be able to affix safety ropes.
Never climb onto a damp or wet roof! Roofs that are wet, even just a little bit, can be very slippery—especially if you have some mildew or mold on it.
Wear soft shoes with a good grip, and always walk along nail lines.
Annual Spring Roof Check Up
Inspect your roof in the spring for debris, moss, mold, damaged tiles or shingles, and damaged or clogged gutters. By repairing it and cleaning it up after the winter season, you will extend the life of your roof.
Any buildup of leaves and pine needles deep enough to hold moisture on the roof will need to be removed. Debris not only traps moisture, but causes mildew to form underneath it, interrupts the flow
Use a plastic leaf rake, push broom, or air blower. Generally, power washers are too strong for most roof types and the water can make it slippery and dangerous. Even when sweeping or raking, use light pressure to avoid causing
Trim overhanging trees to allow sunlight to reach the roof. This will also reduce moisture and mildew problems, and will reduce the amount of debris that Unless you want your roof to look like this, semi-annual roof cleaning and inspection is generally a good idea!
Unless you want your roof to look like this, semi-annual roof cleaning and ion is
Moss has a shallow root system and needs a constant source of moisture to survive.

Since the roots are shallow they are usually easily removed with a long handled scrub brush or by spraying with a garden hose. Always clean and spray from the top of the roof toward the bottom to avoid damaging shingles.
How to prevent:
To prevent moss buildup, you might want to consider nailing zinc strips to the ridgeline. Rain that washes over the zinc creates zinc oxide, which will kill most moss it washes over. Copper strips are also effective and last longer. Install copper strips under the ridge shingles with four inches exposed to the weather.
Zinc and copper strips can be found from most roofing suppliers.
Finally, cut back tree limbs and remove leaves and pine needles. This will allow more sunlight to reach the roof and reduce the amount of moss you have to clean next year. Also, increasing the amount of ventilation in your attic will minimize moisture buildup and moss growth below the shingles.