Moss Removal Under the Maple Bay Canopy

Maple Bay is the shadiest place we work, and that is the beginning and the end of the moss story here.

Under the canopy

The bay is sheltered, the ground rises steeply off the water toward Mount Tzouhalem, and the whole slope is wooded — Douglas fir, western red cedar and arbutus, with houses tucked in underneath rather than cleared around. Plenty of properties never see direct sun on the roof at all through the winter months. Add the steady drop of needles, cedar scale, maple leaf and shed arbutus bark onto the shingles, and the roof is both permanently damp and permanently fed. Nothing else in the valley has both of those conditions at that strength.

Moss under a canopy does not arrive in patches. It comes in as a mat, thickest on the lower third of the roof where debris ends up and heaviest on any north-facing pitch. On the steep waterfront lots stepping down toward Birds Eye Cove, the upper slope of the roof is often the only part that looks clean from the driveway — because that is the one face the debris slides off.

Removal is only half the job here

On a treed Maple Bay lot, a one-off clean does not hold on its own. The debris that feeds the moss keeps arriving every week of the year. So the roof gets cleared by hand, then treated so the remaining growth dies back and weathers off over the following months, and then it becomes a question of keeping the debris load down — gutters cleared out, and where it is practical, branches kept off the roof rather than resting on it or hanging directly over it.

Asphalt shingles are never pressure washed. Under a canopy those shingles already spend their whole life wet, and stripping the mineral granules off with a pressure washer is the fastest way to shorten whatever life they have left.

Gutters on these properties fill faster than anywhere else on the list. A gutter packed with fir needles and moss pushes water back under the roof edge and down the fascia, and on a lot that steps down a slope, that water heads straight for the bank behind the house.

Windows and hard surfaces in permanent shade

Constant shade shows up on the ground too. Paths, the stairs that run down toward the water, and the shaded stretches of driveway go green and slick, which matters more than usual on a property where everything is on a grade.

Window frames are worth a look while we are there. On a shaded, treed lot the moss and dirt collect in the frame channels, the sills and the weep holes rather than on the glass. Blocked weep holes hold water against the frame and start rot, and that is easy to miss because the glass itself still looks fine.

We are local to the Cowichan Valley, hardworking, licensed and insured, and we know the roads out to Birds Eye Cove and Genoa Bay. Get in touch and we will come and see what the trees have been doing to your roof.