Does cleaning a roof before an inspection change the result?

Florida's insurance statute settles the first half of this question before any inspector arrives. It defines how old a roof is, and the definition has no place in it for how the roof looks.

Florida Statutes 627.7011(5)(d) says that “a roof’s age shall be calculated using the last date on which 100 percent of the roof’s surface area was built or replaced in accordance with the building code in effect at that time”. That is a calendar date tied to a complete build or a complete replacement. Washing growth off tile or shingle builds nothing and replaces nothing, so the date stays exactly where it was. The subsection names no other measure of age, and appearance and cleanliness are not terms in it.

The two rules that rest on that age count from the same date. Under (5)(b), an insurer “may not refuse to issue or refuse to renew a homeowner’s policy insuring a residential structure with a roof that is less than 15 years old solely because of the age of the roof”. Under (5)(c), for a roof at least 15 years old, the insurer “must allow a homeowner to have a roof inspection performed by an authorized inspector at the homeowner’s expense before requiring the replacement of the roof of a residential structure as a condition of issuing or renewing a homeowner’s insurance policy”. The closing words matter: the inspection right is tied to issuing or renewing a policy.

Neither threshold moves when a roof is cleaned, because fifteen years is counted from the replacement date either way. How that inspection right works in practice is set out in the right to an inspection before an insurer requires a new roof, and the statute sits beside the county water rule, association covenants and contractor licensing among the Florida rules that touch a roof cleaning. Fifteen years is an insurance line rather than a cleaning one, a distinction taken up in whether a roof can be too old to clean.

Past fifteen years, the statute turns from a date to a judgment, and it says who makes that judgment.

The second sentence of 627.7011(5)(c) says an insurer may not refuse to issue or renew solely because of roof age if an inspection by an authorized inspector “indicates that the roof has 5 years or more of useful life remaining”. Useful life is the inspector's finding. The statute does not describe how the finding is reached, and it says nothing about stains, growth or a recent cleaning.

The term itself is defined one step earlier, in (5)(a): an authorized inspector is “an inspector who is approved by the insurer” and who is one of the kinds the subsection lists, from a licensed home inspector to a roofing contractor. Approval by the insurer is a condition on every kind, so whether a particular person qualifies is a question for the insurer.

The tile makers send their own inspections to the roofing trade. TRI Alliance's maintenance guide puts its inspection interval, 2 years after initial installation and every couple of years after that, inside a sentence that ends with its advice that “you should take precautionary steps in selecting a roofing contractor”. It adds that an owner whose roof is still under the original installation warranty should use that installer for all inspections or repairs, so the installer's warranty is not voided. Eagle Roofing Products' Owner Information points inspection and repair to the original roofing contractor, or to another qualified licensed roofing contractor if that one is unavailable. None of these documents mentions a cleaning as a step before an inspection.

Set against those two measures, the date and the inspector's finding, a cleaning touches one thing the sources name: how the roof looks.

For algae on asphalt shingle, ARMA's maintenance page puts the effect mostly in terms of looks: “There is no scientific evidence that algae is damaging to asphalt shingles, although it certainly affects the aesthetics of a roof.” The same page says algae will have a negative impact on the long-term effectiveness of highly reflective “cool” roofs. Taking the algae off changes those aesthetics, the curb appeal a neighbor sees from the street. What algae does and does not do to the shingle underneath is argued in whether roof algae damages shingles.

Eagle Roofing Products goes one step further for its concrete tile, saying of a professional cleaning of a discolored roof: “Not only will this help with aesthetics, but it will also reveal any problem areas throughout your roof”. That is a line about what can be seen, and the same article sends any concern to a roofing contractor. The difference between a surface in plain view and a roof someone has inspected belongs to whether a clean roof makes damage easier to see.

The replacement date in (5)(d) does not move when a roof is washed. The useful life finding under (5)(c) belongs to the authorized inspector, and the condition of tiles, flashing and underlayment to a roofing contractor. None of the documents quoted here says that a clean roof scores better or that a stained one scores worse. Whether stains alone can cost a policy is a separate question, answered in whether an insurer can drop a policy over roof stains. What a particular inspection looks at is for the inspector and the insurer to say, and whether a cleaning suits the timing of one is the owner's decision with them.