Can You Extend the Life of Your Roof?

Is it possible to treat your roof so that it will last longer and therefore save you money? Some people say that powerwashing your roof will extend its life while others say that the force of the spray or the harshness of the chemicals will actually shorten the life of your roof. Who's right? If you have a reference to research done on this issue, please post a comment to this article so others can benefit from this information.

There is an alternative roof treatment called CedarSave that claims to be more gentle on your roof while extending its life. Inverness Forest Association board vice-president, Sharlene Shugarman, tried CedarSave four years ago. She has send me the following email to share her conclusions with Inverness homeowners:

There is an alternative to replacing your old cedar shake roof. If the physical condition of the shakes are not too deteriorated, Escobar & Robb offers the following service:

Cleaning with low pressure application of “CedarSave” solution, a blend of detergents and fungicides, which lifts out wood-destroying organisms. Applying a clear color, high quality oil-based preservative to restore the natural oils, can promote water repellency and provide protection from the UV rays.

I had my mansards cleaned and treated 4 years ago, and two of my neighbors more recently have treated their roofs. We are all very pleased with the results. We saved a lot of money doing this treatment instead of replacing the shakes and our roofs look almost brand new. I highly recommend this option if your shakes are not beyond repair. I would also recommend that the plants around the home be covered by drop cloths for protection from the agents. Escobar & Robb will provide free estimates.

Sharlene Shugarman


If you would like to comment, please click on the comment link below. If you have a problem with the comment's anti-spam protection, email me your comments and I'll be happy to post them for you.

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com

Online Delivery of the Minutes - The First Time

For the first time ever, most of the Inverness Forest Community is getting the board meeting minutes online. The advantages of online distribution are that it saves trees, saves the cost of printing paper copies, and for those volunteers delivering the paper copies, online distribution saves time and shoe leather.

When I started Inverness Forest Today in April 2008 I didn't think it would grow so quickly and have such a large audience. The mailing list now has 239 email addresses! The are only 304 townhouses in our community. There is some double counting since in some cases more than one member of a household receives IFT and in other cases both an owner and their tenant receive IFT. Still, most of the residents in Inverness Forest are on our mailing list.

I've put the PDF file of the minutes online in the "cloud" (As always) at a location where you have a choice of reading the file online or downloading the PDF file to your computer for printing. Here is the link:

IFA Minutes 8-13-09

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Note that there is a request for more information on the Da Vinci roof material posted as a comment on the previous posting (below). I've some answers (also as a comment), but perhaps someone who has researched these issues can provide a comment with additional information.


Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com