St. Joseph Catholic Church — The Roof Nobody Else Would Clean

A massive tile roof stained black with algae and lichen. Other cleaners passed on it. We came in with lift equipment and roof-safe soft wash chemistry and brought it back.

St. Joseph Catholic Church had a roof nobody else would touch. A large, steep tile roof stained black with years of algae, lichen, and mildew growth. The parish had called around and been turned down. We came in, set up lift equipment in the parking lot, and cleaned it the right way.

Before — Black With Growth

The dark staining you see across the tile is not the tile color — it is biological growth that had built up for years on the north-facing planes. This is exactly the kind of roof that scares off pressure washing companies. Blast it with high pressure and you break tile, dislodge the underlayment, and drive water into the deck. It has to be soft washed.

The Work — Soft Wash From a Lift

We staged a boom lift so our tech could reach every plane of the roof without walking the tile. The soft wash system applies a low-pressure, roof-safe treatment that kills the algae and lichen at the root. You can see the treatment working — the black growth lifts off the tile and rinses clean, exposing the original terracotta color underneath.

The Progress — Clean Sections Next to Dirty

These shots show the contrast mid-job. The cleaned tile is bright terracotta. The uncleaned tile next to it is nearly black. Same roof, same tile, same age — the difference is the treatment doing its work.

Why This Roof Got Turned Down Elsewhere

Big steep tile roofs like this one need three things most crews do not have — lift equipment that can reach the ridges safely, chemistry that actually kills the growth without hurting the tile, and enough experience to sequence the job so nothing gets missed and nothing gets damaged. We have been doing this since 1990. 35,000 roofs and counting.

After the Cleaning

Original terracotta back. Clean lines, even color, no black staining. The parish got its roof back without a single tile replaced.

If you have a roof another company would not clean, give us a call or request a quote. We will come look at it and tell you honestly what it needs.