The first time I saw the house in person my greatest concern was the roof. There was a large amount of moss growing on it, which usually signifies some sort of damage to the shingles, necessitating replacement. I didn’t want to get into the expense right away and kept it in the back of my mind. To my great relief, I followed the home inspector voicing my concerns and had him pluck a chunk of moss to grade the roof. To my amazement, he said “the roof is in degraded condition, but still in great shape overall”. In other words, it wasn’t a new roof, but it shouldn’t be necessary to replace it for quite a few years! My father came over to assist so there was a buddy system available while working from 35 feet up. Over-zealousness must be an inherited trait because a large majority of the moss was gone by the time I could hop on the upper roof for a photo. Oops! Either way, the photos speak volumes about the difference it made. We used a soft plastic scraper and medium bristled brush to clean off the roof while removing little of the aggregate. Once the moss starts to bloom in spring, I will ascend again and spray anti-fungal agents to keep this from happening.
While on the roof, I decided to seal all of the nail heads at the edge of the ridge vents, fix a few loose shingles, seal the roof vents and flashing, and add a chimney cap. I also removed the gutter guards to clean out the gutters and fixed a few minor drips. I also installed better quality gutter guards on the front of the house where most of the mess lives. Everything should be buttoned up tight now that we are heading into winter. There was a small amount of efflorescence around the furnace/hot water exhaust stack in the basement, so I decided to splurge and get a nice vent cap for the chimney. This should completely stop any water ingress that may have been happening.