OUR HOME DISTRICT
Moss Removal in Saanich
The District of Saanich is where most of our work is. Heavy tree cover, a lot of north-facing slopes, and a wet season that runs from October to March.
What's included
What you get
Every visit covers the same ground, whatever the property.
- Growth lifted off by hand and brushed clear, worked down-slope so nothing packs under the courses
- Valleys, hips and the shaded lower courses checked, not just the faces you can see from the road
- Debris cleared off the roof and taken away, and kept out of the gutters and drains on the way down
- Care taken around what is planted underneath, and around anything on the roof that should not get wet
- A plain account of the covering’s condition, with no obligation attached
- Houses, character homes, townhouse rows, strata blocks and commercial roofs
Before and after
The same slope, before and after
Photographed from the same spot in the same light, before we started and again once we had finished.
Saanich is where most of our work happens, and it is a district that grows moss for reasons that have very little to do with how anyone looks after their house.
Start with the canopy. Saanich has more mature tree cover than nearly anywhere else on the south Island — Garry oak through the older neighbourhoods, Douglas fir and cedar in the north and west, and sixty years of subdivision planting that has grown well past the height anyone planned for. A great many roofs here sit under something.
Then the rain. The wet stretch runs from roughly October to March, and for those months a shaded slope does not get a real chance to dry. Between those two facts, a north-facing roof under a fir in Gordon Head is going to grow moss, and the only question is how long it has been left.
The district is not one place
A quote given over the phone for “a house in Saanich” is a guess, because the district covers a lot of very different building stock.
Gordon Head and Cadboro Bay are largely postwar and sixties family housing, on lots planted at the time of building. Those plantings are now sixty-year-old trees hanging over roofs that were designed for open sky, and it shows on the north slopes.
Cordova Bay and Broadmead run to larger, later homes with more complex rooflines — several planes, valleys, dormers — and a lot of them are set into treed lots deliberately. Complexity plus shade is the combination that takes longest.
Royal Oak and the newer subdivisions off Wilkinson are more open, with steeper modern pitches and less mature planting. They fare better and want doing less often.
Tillicum and Quadra carry much of the district’s townhouse and low-rise strata stock. Different work again: the roofs are simpler and the job is mostly coordination.
Prospect Lake and the north are genuinely rural in places, with real forest cover and long rooflines. That is the heaviest growth we see anywhere in the district.
What we are usually called about
The north slope, almost always. Someone finally looks up from the back garden in February and finds one side of the roof is green and the other is not.
After that, in rough order: growth that has reached the gutter trough and is holding water in it; the two or three courses just above the gutter, which stay wettest of anything on the roof; valleys that stay dark and damp long after the rest has dried; and moss on the driveway or the front steps, which is the one people notice with their feet rather than their eyes.
Covering decides the method
Asphalt shingle is most of the housing stock here, and on asphalt the granules are the roof — so the growth is lifted off by hand and never pressure washed.
Cedar shake turns up more often in Saanich than people expect, both on seventies homes and on newer high-end builds, and it is slow hand work through the keyways.
Concrete tile shows up across the eighties and nineties subdivisions, where the care is less about the cleaning and more about where the weight lands.
Which one you have changes the visit more than which neighbourhood you are in.
Booking
Free estimate with nothing attached, Monday to Friday, and we are insured and WCB-registered. Send the address and a photo from the driveway — a picture of the shaded side tells us more than a description does.
We also work in Gordon Head, around Uptown and north to Brentwood Bay.
How it works
How a Moss Visit Runs
Four steps, and the roof is ours from the moment the ladder goes up. You tell us what you are looking at, we price the roof in front of us, and you hear what we found before we leave.
Tell us what you can see
Your address, the roof covering if you know it, and which slopes have gone green.
A photo from the driveway is worth more than a description. North side, shaded by a big fir, growth thick enough to see from the road — that tells us most of what we need before we arrive.
We price the roof itself
Cedar, asphalt and concrete tile are three different jobs, and the quote reflects which one yours is.
Covering, pitch, height, how far the growth has spread and what stands under the eaves all move the figure. You have it before anything is booked.
The growth comes off carefully
Moss is lifted and brushed off the surface, not driven off with pressure.
We work down the slope so nothing is pushed under the courses, keep the run of water in mind the whole time, and take care around whatever is planted below.
You hear what the roof told us
Standing on a roof shows you things the lawn never will.
A course lifting at the edge, a valley holding damp long after the rest has dried, granules already thin where the growth was heaviest. You get that plainly, with nothing attached to it.
Four steps, and the green is gone.
- You send the address and a photo.
- We send back a price for your roof.
- The growth comes off.
- You know what shape the roof is in.
Send the form or call for a free, no-obligation estimate.
Got questions?
Moss removal in Saanich — questions
Why is moss so bad on Saanich roofs?
Tree cover and rainfall together. Saanich has more mature canopy than almost any municipality on the south Island — Garry oak, Douglas fir, cedar — and a wet stretch that runs from October through March. A slope shaded by a large tree may not dry out properly for five months.
Which parts of Saanich have the worst of it?
Anywhere with mature trees close to the house. Gordon Head and Cadboro Bay have subdivision plantings from the sixties that are now overhanging roofs. Prospect Lake and the north of the district have real forest cover. Open, newer areas around Royal Oak fare better.
Do you cover the whole district?
Yes — from Cadboro Bay and Gordon Head across to Tillicum and Quadra, north through Royal Oak and Broadmead, and up to Cordova Bay and Prospect Lake.
How often will a Saanich roof want doing?
A shaded roof under fir or oak tends to want attention every two to three years. An open roof with good afternoon sun goes considerably longer. The shade on the north slope decides it more than anything else.
What roof coverings do you see most here?
Asphalt shingle on most of the postwar and later housing stock, cedar shake on a good number of the sixties and seventies homes and on newer high-end builds, and concrete tile scattered through the eighties and nineties subdivisions.
Do you work on strata and townhouse blocks?
Yes. There is a lot of it through Tillicum, Quadra and around Royal Oak, and the coordination — access, resident notice, parking — is usually more work than the roofs are.
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!”
Moss removal in Saanich
Tell us the address and send a photo of the shaded side, and we will get you a price.