I know that the roof of your RV has to be cleaned at least once a year. But the thought of climbing up on the roof and scrubbing on your hands and knees just doesn't get me that excited! Well, excited or not it has to be done. I am not afraid of heights. I am however afraid of ladders. I do not like climbing up or descending down ladders. To top it off the ladder on the fifth wheel is narrow. This makes it difficult to slide down between the rails of the ladder. I am much wider then the rails. It's not just me though, I believe most people are wider then this ladder. I just have a fear that the ladder will become disconnected from the trailer and I will fall and the sudden stop will be painful!
This is my first attempt at RV roof cleaning. Because it is summer and the temperature is already near the century mark we decided to wait until late in the evening to start.
We waited until late in the evening for the temperature to lower and roof to cool off before I started this chore.
Finally, It was time to take this bull by the horns. I climbed the ladder armed with the water hose spray nozzle, scrub brush and rubber roof cleaner. Once on the roof I slide around on my rear while I scrubbed the roof. I sprayed the entire roof to loosen the dirt and then sprayed the cleaner in a small area about 3x3 then scrubbed with the brush. It was a noticeable instant difference. It took about an hour to clean the entire roof. I might have waited a little too late in the day, it started to get dark as I was getting finished.
Now the real fun starts. I am soaked from head to toe and I needed to climb back down the narrow ladder. I tried sliding down between the rails. I am just too wide. I tried going down on my belly but the top step was out of reach, and I tried going down backwards, that didn't work either. No way I was going to be able to get down that ladder. Dawn was on the ground asking how she could help me. She knows I struggle with the ladder thing. She is afraid of heights so she is very sympathetic to my dilemma. After thinking about it long and hard I asked her to get the extension ladder from the garage for me. This is a real chore because the ladder is so long and heavy. She was able to get it set up and I climbed down it instead.
By the way we used Full Timer's Choice Rubber Roof Cleaner & Conditioner. You can find it at WalMart. It was not expensive and easy to use.
I believe this roof cleaning chore is something I will need to repeat about ever six months. An hour and a little elbow grease made a tremendous difference. The roof is now a bright white. This should stop the black streak problem for now.
Tomorrow we will put in some and a lot more elbow grease to remove the black streaks from the sides. I know from past experience that it will be a time consuming chore. Once the black streaks are removed we will give it a good washing and finally a coat of wax. That should last about six month and we will repeat the process again.
