Cleaning A Roof Without Voiding The Warranty

Why this is worth a paragraph

Roofing manufacturers warrant their products against defects, and most of those warranties carry conditions about installation and about what is done to the roof afterwards. Cleaning is one of the things they commonly address, and the direction is consistent: low pressure yes, high pressure no, harsh mechanical methods no.

What to check

Find the manufacturer warranty for your roof covering - if you do not have it, the manufacturer and product name should be on your original proposal or permit paperwork, and the warranty terms are published. Look for the maintenance or care section. You are checking three things: whether pressure washing is expressly excluded, what cleaning solutions are permitted, and whether the warranty requires that any work on the roof be done by a licensed contractor.

The general picture

We are not going to summarise every manufacturer's terms here, because they differ and because the one that applies to your roof is the one that matters. But the pattern across the industry is that high-pressure washing is treated as abuse of the product, and damage traceable to it is not a defect. That is the whole reason this article exists.

Workmanship warranties

Separately from the manufacturer, your roofing contractor's workmanship warranty covers the installation. Ours is in writing on every re-roof we do, and it covers our work, not what a pressure-washing crew did to it afterwards. Any contractor's will say something similar. If somebody else damages the roof, that is a conversation with them.

The practical rule

Before any cleaning: know what your covering is, know what its warranty says about cleaning, and use a low-pressure process by someone who understands the roof. Afterwards: have it looked at. A photograph of the roof before and after a clean is the kind of record that makes a warranty conversation short, in either direction.

← All articles