As I was leaving one job site today I went down a road to throw out some rock flyers. I came upon a house that was cedar shake and there were workers tearing off the shakes and replacing them with new cedar shakes. Being a roof cleaner I had to stop to find out what was going on.
The workers said that they had to replace all the cedar shakes because they were bad, I took a look and what was "bad" to the roofers was moss, lichen, mold and just an overall dark color, I got permission to spray a few with my roof mix and while in the process of doing so the homeowner came home and I was able to show him that a professional cleaning was all he really needed.
When I asked why he went with replacement - The roofing contractor told him that cedar shakes could not be cleaned, that they had to be replaced. (not a very reputable roofer if you ask me)
The homeowner stated that he had never heard of anyone cleaning a roof before. This lack of knowledge about roof cleaning is one thing that drives me crazy up here in Michigan, no matter how much advertising I do it is still a service that so many have no idea even exists.
I felt bad for the home owner as he had already paid over $30,000 to replace the cedar on his roof. To clean would have been about $4,500