Wood roofs
Moss Removal for Cedar Shake Roofs in Parksville
A shake roof wants to dry out between rains, and moss stops it. We pick the growth out by hand, keep high pressure off the wood, and tell you plainly what shape the shakes are in.
Customer reviews
What customers say
Amazing! Sent in a request form on their website in the morning, heard back that afternoon, and booked for the next day. Very fast, reliable, and efficient.
They are efficient, hardworking, and reliable. I’ll definitely call them again for other services. Highly recommended!
Great customer service, and they came quickly..will be using again for sure
Why us
Why customers love our service
And why you will get the best moss removal service in Parksville!
Fast and efficient moss removal
We arrive on the agreed day, finish every slope we quoted for, and leave the yard as tidy as we found it.
Clear and quick communication
Calls and texts get answered, the price is settled before work begins, and afterwards we tell you how the roof looked.
Five-star reviews
Homeowners rate our crew five stars, review after review.
Clearing moss since 2021
Five years on Oceanside roofs of every kind: asphalt, cedar, tile and metal, plus the paving beneath them.
- A walk round the house and a look at each slope from the eave before we climb
- Moss and packed needles picked out of every keyway, course by course
- Growth lifted off the shake faces with soft tools, moving with the grain
- Ridge caps, hips and valleys cleared where debris piles up
- Treatment on what is left in the wood, applied in a controlled line
- Moss bagged and taken away, and moss in the gutter trough below scooped out
- Photos and notes on any shake that is split, cupped, loose or soft
Shake roofs turn up all over Oceanside: on houses a few streets back from the beach in Parksville and Qualicum Beach, on acreage homes out toward Errington and Coombs, and on a fair number of garden sheds and gazebos. Cedar is a good roofing wood, but it only lasts if it gets to dry out between rains. Moss is the thing that stops it drying, and that is why we treat a wood roof as its own job rather than a slower version of a shingle roof.
Reading your shake roof from the driveway
You can tell a lot without a ladder. Stand back far enough to see each slope, and look for four things.
- Green lines running down the roof. These are the keyways, the narrow gaps between neighbouring shakes. Moss starts there because the gap is shaded on both sides.
- A dark band along the bottom edge of each row. That edge is end grain, and it soaks up water faster than the face. A band that looks darker than the rest usually means it is staying wet.
- Curled or lifted shakes. Cedar that is soaked and dried over and over starts to cup and twist.
- Needle drifts. Look behind the chimney, in valleys and along the lower rows. Douglas fir and western red cedar drop needles and sprays all year, and arbutus sheds in summer, so the debris is rarely seasonal.
If you see the first two across most of a slope, the moss is well settled in.
Moss, lichen or just old cedar?
Not everything on a wood roof needs to come off. Silver-grey colour is the cedar weathering, and that surface helps it shed water. Black streaks are mostly staining. Lichen sits flat and crusty and holds on hard. Moss is the soft, raised cushion, and it is the main concern because it holds rain against the wood for weeks. We focus the effort where the water is being held, and we leave the weathered surface alone.
Is the roof still worth clearing?
This is the question we try to answer honestly at the quote. Most shake roofs fall into one of three groups:
- Sound cedar with moss in the gaps. Clearing it is well worth doing, and it helps the roof dry out properly through the next wet season.
- A tired roof with soft patches. Clearing still helps it dry, but you should know a roofer will be needed for parts of it.
- Cedar that is soft along the bottom edges right across the slopes. The roof is near the end of its life whatever the moss is doing. We will say so, and you can decide whether a tidy-up is still worth paying for.
How it works
How Booking Your Roof Works
Four steps, and only the first one needs anything from you. Describe the roof, approve the price, and stay on solid ground while we work.
Describe the roof
Two minutes on the phone or the form.
The address, how many storeys, the roofing material if you know it, and roughly how green it looks from the yard. Mention any big trees nearby.
Approve the price
Every quote is worked out for one roof.
Steepness, height, material, the depth of the moss and how we reach each slope set the figure. It is free, and you have it in hand before any work begins.
The moss comes off
Our crew handles the climbing.
Scrapers and brushes take the moss off the courses, a treatment goes on if it will help, and the bagged moss leaves in our truck. If washing is needed, it is a low-pressure soft wash; asphalt shingles and cedar shakes never see high pressure.
Hear what we saw
Nothing up there stays a mystery.
A curled tab, a split shake, bare patches where granules have gone, or flashing pulling loose: we tell you where it is, and the next step is up to you.
Done.
- You describe the roof.
- You approve a free quote.
- We clear the moss.
- The ladder stays in our truck, not your garage.
Want the green gone from your roof? Ask for a free quote and leave the climbing to our crew.
How we clear a shake roof
The first thing we do is plan a route. Weak shakes get marked from the eave, and we keep our weight on the sound ones. Moss comes off the faces with soft brushes and plastic scrapers, always working down the slope and along the grain. Dragging a tool across the grain roughs up the wood, and rough wood holds more water.
The keyways take the most time. Each one is picked clear by hand with narrow tools that will not lever up the shakes on either side, and the needles packed against the row below come out with the moss. High pressure is never used on the wood. Where a rinse is useful, it is a low-pressure soft wash. If you choose a treatment and the weather allows, growth still rooted in the grain is treated and left to die back over the following months.
Anything that drops off the roof is collected and bagged, beds below are covered first, and any moss sitting in the gutter trough comes out too. The rest of the visit follows our usual roof demossing routine.
Keeping a wood roof drier afterwards
Shade is the biggest factor. A roof under a tall stand of fir will green up again sooner than one out in the open on a waterfront lot, so letting more light and wind onto the slopes does more good than anything you can put on the cedar. Ask an arborist about thinning branches that hang over the roof. Our moss treatment and prevention page covers zinc strips and follow-up treatment, and it is honest about what they can and cannot do, since moss always comes back in time.
If the overall staining bothers you more than the moss, read the roof cleaning page. If you have more than one roof type on the property, the asphalt shingle page explains how that one differs. When you are ready, send us a few details and we will put a free quote together.
Why choose us
Why choose us for cedar shake roofs
Wood gets its own pace
We book a shake roof for the hours it really needs, so nobody is tempted to hurry the keyways at the end of the day.
Weight on sound wood only
The route across each slope is planned around the shakes that look weak, so we are not the reason one cracks.
Honest about worn-out roofs
If the cedar is near the end of its life, you hear that from us before you spend money clearing it.
Insured, WCB-registered, guaranteed
We have been clearing moss since 2021. If a slope is not finished the way we agreed, we come back and make it right.
Got questions?
Questions about moss on shake roofs
Is the black streaking on my shakes moss?
Usually not. Dark streaks and blotches on cedar are mostly algae and mildew staining the wood, and flat, crusty patches in pale green or grey are lichen. Moss is the soft, raised growth, and on a shake roof it gathers first in the gaps between shakes.
Moss is the one that holds the most water against the wood, so it is what we go after. Staining fades over time once the roof is drying out properly, but some of it is in the grain to stay.
Can you do the cedar roof on my shed, gazebo or workshop as well?
Yes. Small wood roofs on treed acreages often sit under bigger trees than the house does, and they can be greener than the main roof. Mention them when you ask for a quote and we will price them in the same visit.
Is it safe for me to get up there with a brush myself?
We would rather you did not. Old cedar is slippery when it is damp and can snap under a boot when it is very dry, and a shake roof gives little warning either way. Leave the climbing to a crew with harnesses and the right footing, and keep the ladder for the garden.
Do you wash the roof at all?
The removal itself is hand work. If a rinse helps, it is a low-pressure soft wash, never high pressure. A strong jet chews up the soft surface of the wood and drives water into the joints between courses, which is the opposite of what a cedar roof needs.
What happens if you find broken or soft shakes?
We stop, photograph them and keep our weight off them. At the end you get a note of where each one is. We do not repair roofs, so that list is something to hand to a roofer, ideally before the wet season sets in.
What time of year suits a shake roof best?
A run of dry days matters more than the month. On this part of the coast most of the rain comes between October and April, so late spring through early fall gives the best footing, and it leaves time to sort out repairs before the wet months return.
Cedar Shake Roofs in Parksville and Oceanside
Tell us the address and we will get you a price.