Roof washing on Marco Island.

Marco Island roofs sit in salt air from every direction — the Gulf off South Collier, the Marco River canals behind the houses, Caxambas Pass to the south — and island humidity keeps the surface damp between rains. Barrel tile, which most of the island is roofed in, has a textured profile that holds moisture in the pan of every tile, so it gives algae exactly the foothold it needs.

Our roof washing uses a low-pressure soft wash with a solution that kills the growth at the root, then rinses gently and lets the roof keep clearing over the weeks after. Nobody walks the tile, because barrel tile cracks under foot traffic and a cracked tile on an island home is a leak waiting for the next tropical downpour.

Marco's landscape ordinances and dense plantings mean the runoff gets managed — beds pre-wet, solution diluted, everything rinsed behind us. Where the cage and the deck have taken the same salt and humidity load, lanai cleaning and pool deck cleaning are the matching jobs. More on the island in Marco Island.