Roofs, gutters, and danger pay

Roofs: chemistry from the ground

Asphalt shingle roofs are the highest-ticket soft wash in residential work, priced in surveys at $0.40 to $1.00 per square foot (HomeGuide), and the prohibition is fixed by the people who make the shingles. The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association's guidance is a single unambiguous sentence: never use a pressure washer on an asphalt shingle roof, because it causes granule loss and likely premature failure of the roof (ARMA). What ARMA prescribes instead is mild: a 50:50 mix of laundry-strength chlorine bleach and water, roughly a 3 percent finished mix, given 15 to 20 minutes of dwell and a gentle rinse. Working operators typically run stronger than the manufacturers, 4 to 6 percent SH at garden-hose pressure, because heavy algae dies faster that way and the schedule matters. Treat ARMA's mix as the safe floor, not a ceiling to double: over-strength chemistry on shingles is the same damage mode "Pressure, gallons, and chemistry" warns about on every other surface. However you mix, the rinse is gentle and everything gets applied from the ground. Anyone quoting a "roof pressure wash" is selling a roof replacement on an installment plan, and you will meet their customers.

Roof technique mirrors the house wash with three differences. First, the mix is stronger and the plant protection is correspondingly critical: saturate everything below the eave line, cover delicate beds if needed, and plan a neutralizer rinse on landscaping and the home's lower siding after the roof, because everything you spray up there comes down. Second, water management matters more; keep spraying volumes modest and controlled rather than flooding gutters and downspouts with concentrate. Third, access: a dedicated soft-wash system or a strong 12-volt pump reaches a typical two-story roof line from the ground, which is the entire safety strategy. If the chemical cannot reach the roof from the ground, the professional answer is a taller application system or a different service offer, not a ladder and optimism.

Tile, metal, and cedar roofs exist in some markets and each has its own method and risk (cedar in particular punishes a wrong mix). Until you are trained on a surface, quote the roofs you know and refer the rest. A declined job costs you nothing; a destroyed tile roof costs you the business.

Gutters: price the ladder into the number

Gutter work splits in two. Gutter exterior brightening, removing the gray oxidation stripes on the outside face, is a chemical-and-scrub service that operators love on one-story homes and refuse or heavily upcharge on two-story homes, because brushing gutters from a ladder 25 feet up is exactly the trade-off between a $75 add-on and a life-changing fall. Gutter interior cleaning, flushing debris, is ladder work by definition and is priced accordingly: one experienced operator's floors are $165 for a single-story home and $200 for a two-story, numbers homeowners push back on until they understand the risk they are asking someone to carry. That operator prices the pushback out loud, and so should you.

The profitable attachment is gutter guards. The same operator reports converting roughly 20 percent of gutter cleaning customers into a guard installation upsell, which is a product-and-install service adjacent to washing. Treat guard installation as its own offering with its own training, not something improvised on a ladder. That product-and-install work is handyman territory; the handyman course teaches the ladder discipline and job pricing that trade runs on.

The walk-away list

Part of professional competence is the jobs you decline. The short version operators converge on: roofs steeper than you are equipped and trained for, anything requiring you to walk a roof you would not fall asleep on a chair thinking about, three-story anything from a ladder, chemical jobs above occupied entryways with no ground access, and any customer who instructs you to "just hit it with pressure." Decline graciously, refer a specialist, and keep the relationship. The neighborhood remembers the operator who said no for the right reason.

When height work is genuinely safe and necessary, the rules are non-negotiable: inspect the ladder and its duty rating, set the four-to-one angle, secure the top, three points of contact, never the top two rungs, never overreach, and a helper on the ground for anything above one story. Falls from even 10 feet can kill. This paragraph is shorter than the funeral.

The craft section is done: you can wash a house, a driveway, a deck, and a roof without wrecking any of them. From here the course turns to the business half.