Clay tile, concrete tile and composition shingle
Roof Cleaning Services in San Luis Obispo County
Black streaks, moss and lichen come off with low pressure and dwell time, not a wand held six inches off your tiles. Corey Byler is the one on the roof, and the job ends with a walk around before anybody packs up.
Mon to Sat, 7am to 6pm · License #17881 · Insured to $1,000,000
Get a fast quote, it takes about five seconds
A roof here fails on the shade side, and it fails slowly
What is growing up there depends on which side of the Santa Lucias you live on.
On the coast the roof is the last thing to dry out. In Cambria, Baywood-Los Osos, Morro Bay, Cayucos and Avila the marine layer sits in overnight and does not burn off until mid morning, so a north facing slope can stay damp most of the day for months at a stretch. That is exactly what roof algae wants. It shows up as black streaks running down from the ridge, and in the shade under Monterey pines and coast live oaks it goes further than staining: moss in the shingle gaps and lichen welded onto tile.
Inland it starts as a dust problem before it becomes a moisture problem. Paso Robles, Templeton, Creston, Atascadero and Santa Maria go five or six months without rain, and harvest dust off the vineyards and the row crops settles into the pans of a tile roof and the gaps of a shingle roof every autumn. Add oak leaf litter and needle drop, then a few heavy dews, and you have a damp bed of organic material sitting on the roof. By the first real rain in November it is a mat, and water starts going sideways instead of down.
Then there is the damage people do trying to fix it themselves. A pressure washer on composition shingle strips off the ceramic granules, and those granules are the only UV shield the asphalt underneath has. You can age a roof several years in one afternoon, and the evidence turns up as black grit in the gutter. Most shingle warranties exclude pressure washing damage outright. On the clay and concrete tile you see all over San Luis Obispo, Atascadero and Paso Robles, a wand cracks tiles and drives water up under the laps onto the sheathing.
How the job actually runs
Corey is the one on the roof. Nothing is handed to a subcontractor at any point, so the person who quoted the job is the person putting his boots on your tile. Business License #17881, insured to $1,000,000, certificate on request.
We read the roof before we treat it
First trip up is to look. What the roof is made of, how brittle it has gone under years of UV, whether tiles are already cracked or slipped, where the flashing sits, and what is actually growing: algae streaking, moss, or lichen. You hear about anything we find before we start, not after.
Your landscaping gets soaked before anything gets sprayed
Beds, shrubs and lawn under the drip line get wetted down with plain water first and covered where they need it, and we follow where the runoff really goes. On the hillside lots around San Luis Obispo and Cambria that means walking it downhill, not just glancing at the plant nearest the downspout.
Low pressure, and time doing the work
The solution goes on at roughly garden hose pressure and is left to dwell. Nothing is scrubbed, nothing is blasted, no wand gets held close to the surface. The chemistry and the dwell time do the job, so the granules on a shingle roof and the glaze on a tile roof stay where they are.
Foot placement, which is the whole trick on tile
On tile you stand on the bottom third of each tile, where it is supported by the batten and by the course below. Step in the middle of the span and it cracks, every time. Steep or brittle roofs get worked from ladders and the edges instead, or from a lift.
Rinse down, clear off, walk it with you
The roof gets rinsed and the loose debris comes off instead of being left in the valleys. Dead moss still gripping keeps letting go over the following weeks, and rain carries the rest. Then a walk around at ground level with you, and anything you are not happy with gets put right there and then.
What is included
- A proper look at the roof before anything is sprayed, with cracked, slipped or already damaged tiles pointed out to you
- Low pressure treatment for black algae streaking, moss and lichen, at roughly garden hose pressure
- Tile pans, valleys and roof to wall junctions cleared of leaf litter and needle drop
- Plants, beds and lawn soaked and covered first, then rinsed again at the end
- Loosened moss and debris taken off the roof rather than pushed down into the valleys
- Photos of what is up there that you cannot see from the ground, lifted flashing and exposed nail heads included
- A straight answer on whether the staining will fully clear or whether that section of roof is past it
- A walk around with you at ground level before we pack up
What we do not do
Worth saying plainly, so nobody is waiting on something we were never going to do.
- Any roofing repair. We do not replace cracked tiles, reseal flashing or patch anything. We photograph it and you call a roofer.
- Pressure washing a roof. We will not do it on shingle or on tile, whoever asks and whatever the price.
- A full gutter and downspout clean out. What we knock off the roof gets cleared, but the gutters themselves are their own job.
- Skylight glass, which gets done properly as its own job rather than rinsed over in passing.
Real reviews, real Central Coast addresses
The light literally shines brighter
Every word below is lifted straight from Corey's Google profile. Nothing written by us, nothing tidied up.
What roof cleaning costs around here
Across the Central Coast, roof cleaning tends to run somewhere between $0.20 and $0.60 per square foot of roof area, which puts a lot of single story homes in the $400 to $900 range, with large, steep or tile roofs above that. Those are regional ranges to set expectations, not our quote. The only honest number comes after somebody has looked at your roof.
Roof area, not floor area
A sprawling single story ranch outside Templeton has far more roof than a two story home with the same square footage inside. The roof is what gets measured.
Tile or composition shingle
Tile takes longer. Foot placement is slower, the pans hold debris that has to be cleared out by hand, and old brittle tile gets worked from the edges or a lift instead of being walked.
Pitch and how walkable it is
Past a moderate pitch the whole method changes. Steep roofs mean ladders, edge work or a lift rather than boots on the deck, and that is time.
How much is actually growing
Light streaking on one north slope is a different job from a shaded Cambria or Los Osos roof carpeted in moss and lichen that has been building for a decade.
What is planted under the drip line
Mature planting tight against the house means more soaking, more covering and more rinsing. A gravel border means almost none of that.
Height and access
Second and third stories, hillside lots around San Luis Obispo and Avila, tight side yards and anything needing a lift all add time.
No obligation, no pressure, no call center
We Guarantee 100% Satisfaction
Every job finishes the same way: a walk around with you before we pack up, so anything you are not happy with gets put right there and then. Corey Byler is the one doing that walk around. Business License #17881, insured to $1,000,000, and no part of the job handed to somebody else.
Roof Cleaning questions we get asked
Can you pressure wash a roof?
Does roof cleaning void a roof warranty?
Will walking on my clay tile roof crack the tiles?
What are the black streaks running down my roof?
Will the runoff from cleaning my roof kill my plants?
How often does a roof need cleaning on the Central Coast?
Service area
One truck, the whole county
From the fog line in Cambria down to Santa Maria and inland through Paso and Creston. If you are on this list we get out to you. If you are just off it, call anyway and we will tell you straight.
Often booked with this
Ready to see what your glass actually looks like?
Send an address and we will get you a real number. Residential or commercial, anywhere from Cambria to Santa Maria.
Monday to Saturday, 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM · Owner operated · Nothing subcontracted