Should I wash the roof?

Question

I'm going to be listing my house soon. The exterior has been freshly painted, it has new windows and doors. The roof is in fine condition, it's just a little dirty. I can pay $400 to have it washed. Is that worth the expense or is roof washing a gimmick? I'm also fairly handy, is it something I could do myself with a few hours to kill? The house is about 1800 square feet, so the roof is fairly big. Is it worth the time or money? I want to list it next week or so.

Bryan Devitt · Answer

@Forrest Williams and you can buy the soap to spray on it. Usually you spray it on and leave it for a few hours to a couple days and wash it off. You could also plan it before a storm. Is that couple hundred dollars of labor worth the possibility of falling off a roof though?

Bryan Devitt · Answer

@Forrest Williams yes. The rain doesn't wash it any more than the rain washes your car. It doesn't look as good after a rain storm as it did when you took it off the lot. A clean roof looks new again and will get prospective buyers to look at it and think they don't need to worry about it for a long time. If it is dirty it will look old and they could assume it will need a new one in the not so distant future

Theresa Harris · Answer

Normally the rain will take care of that.  The only time I've heard of anyone washing their roof was spraying it to remove moss.

Barry Pekin · Answer

@Forrest Williams,

Honestly, nothing I've ever considered.  But, if I were to look at my house and the dirty roof really stood out, I'd consider it.  Then I'd probably look at some new roofs to see if they stand out as a selling point.  If I saw a drastic difference, I might go for it.  It's a cheap fix.

Do it yourself ONLY IF you are comfortable and know how to be safe doing it.  I saw someone fall off a roof once, and it was not a pretty sight.  If you're not completely comfortable doing it, pay the few bucks to get it done.