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I have zinc strip on my roof. Seems to work. Wish it could do something about the trees constantly dropping small sticks during storms. . Several houses in my neighborhood do too. Also, I also notice houses that are often in need of a roof repair that have clean roofs below the galvanized flashings around shingles, vents. Metal is usually galvanized with some kind of zinc I think.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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It would depend on the circumstances, orientation to the sun, trees, and climate. We get 60" of rain, have 80-100' old growth trees in the yard, and the front of the house faces north. We have to get the roof cleaned 2-3 times a year from the fir needles, cones, and small branches, and when we do, the guy also sprinkles a moss killer on it. Our metal flashings are painted to match the shingles, but even zinc strips wouldn't be enough in our case since the front never sees the sun.
The biggest difference is in the material.
There is “galvanized” metal, which has a coating of zinc; and then there’s zinc strips that are like 90+% zinc.
Contrary to popular believe, galvanized metal will rust at some point- kinda defeats the purpose of killing moss and other organic matter on composition roofs. Zinc strips on the other hand can last upwards of 20yrs.
I vaguely remember a company that made ridge vents with a “built-in” zinc strip- ridiculously expensive versus just adding the zinc strip to the roof just under a typical ridge vent.
Moss and other organic are certainly prevalent here in the SE- due to a very large canopy of trees, humidity, and a rather good annual rain amount. Why zinc isn’t used more often would seem to be a rather innocent question. The answer is always the same… it’s a warranty nightmare, and just another expense builders don’t want to add to the bottom line!
I found answer to my question by accident.
I was searching for those zinc strips at HD and bumped into associate who told me, that he has them installed on his garage roof. He said that nothing grows from strip all the way down.
So I have two 50 ft rolls. I have 200 sf shad, I'll start there. As a trial.
I found answer to my question by accident.
I was searching for those zinc strips at HD and bumped into associate who told me, that he has them installed on his garage roof. He said that nothing grows from strip all the way down.
So I have two 50 ft rolls. I have 200 sf shad, I'll start there. As a trial.
I worked part-time at HD during one trip through lay-off land. One thing I learned is there are some very knowledgeable, qualified people working there, but there are also some that don't know their a** from a hole in the ground. The guy mixing paint may have just been "promoted" from being the one collecting shopping carts. When I want assistance, the first thing I do is don't assume they know what they are talking about.
I ask something like "are you familiar with this product.....", and go from there.
Quite interesting, how we look for answers all over the world, while they are right in front of you.
We have shed on the property. With fancy small tower in the center of the roof crest. Only TODAY, after 6.5 years in the place, have I noticed that, there is moss on either side of that tower, but none right down below it, all the way down to the roof edge.
Well, go figure, then I realized that that tower has copper roofing.
Hence, copper apparently works, so should zinc.
I already placed a strip along that shed roof edge. I'll treat it as experiment.
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