Moss Removal Around Uptown

Uptown is a different kind of job from the rest of the district, and it is worth its own page because almost nothing about it works like a house.

The building stock through here and along the Douglas corridor is low-rise strata, townhouse rows, and commercial. Roofs are mostly low-pitch or close to flat, runs are long, and a single property can carry more roof area than a whole street of Gordon Head houses. The work itself is straightforward. Getting to it is the part that takes planning.

Why low-pitch roofs grow more

A steep roof sheds. A low-pitch roof holds.

Water moves off slowly, debris stays where it lands, and there is no dry side — growth establishes evenly across the whole surface instead of concentrating on one face. On a house you can often point to the north slope as the problem. On a flat-ish strata roof the answer is usually all of it, in a thin, even layer that has been building for years without anyone below noticing.

The other consequence is drainage. Low-pitch roofs rely on internal drains, scuppers and a fall that is measured in a couple of degrees. Growth spread across that surface interferes with a system that had very little margin to start with, and standing water on a flat roof is a problem of a different order from standing water in a gutter.

The coordination is the job

On a block, the roof takes a day and the arrangements take longer.

Where do ladders go up, and does that stall need to be empty. Who tells the residents, and how far ahead. Is there a gate, and who has the code. Which elevation faces the lane, and can a truck sit there while it is loaded. Who signs the work off, and do they need it before or after a council meeting.

None of that is difficult, but all of it has to happen before anyone arrives, and a crew that turns up expecting to work it out on the morning wastes a day of everybody’s time. Send the building and we will do that part first.

What a council actually needs

An estimate that can be read out and a report that can be filed.

We come back with which blocks are carrying growth and how badly, what the coverings are and how they are wearing, whether the drainage is doing its job, and roughly when the shaded blocks will want looking at again. That is enough to plan a maintenance cycle around rather than reacting to whichever block someone complained about.

The commercial roofs

Along Douglas and Saanich Road there is a run of single-storey commercial with parapet roofs and a fair amount of rooftop equipment. Growth around units, at parapet bases and in drainage channels is common and rarely gets looked at.

Those roofs are slower going — more obstacles, more edge protection, more care around anything that should not get wet — and the estimate says so up front.

Free estimate, Monday to Friday, insured and WCB-registered.

Uptown sits within Saanich, between Victoria and Gordon Head.