Green Algae On Roof Shingles
Living in a humid area of the country like florida you ve probably seen your asphalt shingle roofs with unsightly dark streaks on them.
Green algae on roof shingles. Moss on your roof is typically green throughout the wet times of the year but can turn greenish brown during the drier seasons. Ask the builder host tim carter shares an easy way to keep your homes roof shingles free from moss algae and mildew. It can be brown gray blue or green. Algae growth is common on roof surfaces of several materials including asphalt shingles concrete and clay roof tiles and even slate.
Spray it on the roof and you need to keep the roof wet with the solution for about ten or fifteen minutes. It does its best to kill it and take away the stains. Algae is not a plant but an organism spread by spores. Algae will grow flush against the shingles and fixtures on your roof.
We ll explain more of that in a bit. The black stains are buildups of algae that can prevent the sun from burning off the bacteria. The green color comes from chlorophyll which is the same substance that makes plants green. Roof algae generally have a black green hue.
The only way to take care of it is to use a high base chemical solution like zinc sulfate. The black mold like stains and streaks that appear on roofs particularly light colored asphalt shingles is actually a blue green algae gloeocapsa magma. Take a scrub brush lightly scrub the shingles. Commonly found in climates with warm humid summers it does no damage to the roofing but it certainly does looks bad.
Here in oregon mostly blue green algae grows on the outside of the house or on the roof shingles. With the natural wonders of copper you ll never have to clean green scum off of your houses roof. The oxygen bleach starts to go ahead and attack the roof algae. If you have green stains on your deck or siding it s probably due to either cholophyta algae green algae or a cyanobacterium related to gloeocapsa magma.
Sometimes it can also be caused by an accumulation of mildew mold dirt or defective shingles. It causes the black stains you may see on your roof. The green and black algae in my opinion are not harmful to the actual roofing material because they do not develop roots. They are more of an aesthetic issue since they make the roof look horrible.
Algae grow most often on wood and asphalt shingles or concrete tiles especially if they do not get a lot of sunlight. A blue green algae known as gloeocapsa magma could be the reason you have the algae which is spread by airborne spores. Often algae that is identified as green when studied microscopically also looks black or quite dark on a roof surface. The most common class of roof algae is gloeocapsa magma a bacterium that eats water and expels oxygen.