Robert11 wrote:
Hello:

Have a typical colonial, painted white.

The somewhat shady side of the house has a few good size patches of very
light colored
green colored moss on it. (I assume it's moss, but perhaps fungus, algae,
or... ?)

No big deal, but not too happy with it.

Live in New England.

In a few months will be real, real, cold up here.

Questions:

a. Will that kill the moss ?

b. If so, when "dead", will the green color go away ?

Reason I'm asking is that we will be re-painting the house in the Spring,
and if the green color will actually go away, will just wait until then.

Thanks,
B.


We have mildew/mold in Florida that comes in several colors - red,
green, black. Grows best in areas shaded by structure or plants.
Cleans up very nicely with 10% bleach and water solution. That is
PLENTY strong. Don't want to slather that on any metal parts. Don't
know about cold killing it because we don't have cold. Even if it is
killed by cold, the spores are everywhere and start growing very quickly
in the right conditions.

Thinning trees and shrubs might help, or pruning so they are not as
close to the structure. Just scrubbing off soil once a year or so might
help. Main reason semi-gloss paint is preferred around these parts, as
it offers less grip to stuff that grows. Anything here that stands
still more than five minutes will rust and/or grow mildew.

I doubt you have moss growing on the house, but if you do you probably
have some real rotten wood. Mildew has to have some organic food to
grow on, so cleaning helps prevent growth. We cleaned up some of the
landscaping to keep it away from the building, and haven't had any
noticeable mildew since. Also repainted, but nothing fancy as far as
mildew preventative. If you paint over it, without killing it, it is
likely the paint will fail in those areas.