Why It’s Important to Clean Moss Off Your Roof

moss growing between roof tiles

For many years I had moss growing on my roof in Seattle and had no idea it was causing so much harm. I thought the moss on my roof shingles looked pretty and might actually make the roof stronger, but I was very, very wrong. For sure, moss looks nice when it’s on the roof of a wooden cabin in a scenic photo of the landscape, and it looks nice in the mountains and on brick pathways, but it’s horrible for the health of your roof. So, today I want to explain why I now get the moss cleaned off my roof by professionals every three years, and why you should do the same.

The longer moss is left on your roof untreated the more potential damage it can do to your shingles. And once enough damage is done to your shingles much worse problems occur, such as water leaks into your roof space and attic. These water leaks are made possible because moss grows relentlessly, plying open your singles overtime creating gaps between them and underneath. I’ve seen roofs covered in so much moss that the wood of the roof became rotten and the moss was so heavy with moisture that eventually the roof caved in. The owner of this house was elderly and widowed so they couldn’t go up and clean it themselves, and it was very sad to see.

My own roof wasn’t as bad as the others, but if I hadn’t got it professionally handled by a roof cleaning Seattle company soon then I would have needed roof repairs. By taking action I prevented worse damage to my roof. So if you see moss on your roof I recommend getting it treated by professionals as soon as you can. The cost of roof cleaning is well worth it because you’ll be saving money if you consider the cost of the roof repairs you’ll need if you let your moss problem get out of control.

Even metal roofs are susceptible to the damages of moss, because moss can corrode the zinc on sheet metal and cause it to rust overtime. Also, slate tiled roofs are no better, because if the moss grows between the tiles it can cause them to get dislodged or even crack due to the tension of expanding. The same goes for wooden and clay tiled roofs. Asphalt shingles are the most susceptible, because the moss can literally peal the shingles up and allow water to pour underneath more easily due to the shingles’ light weight. So no matter what type of roof you have, the moss should be treated right away.

Not all areas around the world have moss problems, but many coastal cities like Seattle do. In Seattle, because moss loves the moisture of the Pacific Ocean, the moss regrows on my roof roughly every three years. It would grow back sooner but the roof cleaning Seattle company I hired sprayed a moss prevention solution on my shingles which temporally stops any further moss from re-growing, but this only lasts three years. If you’re worried about the moss re-growing, some companies offer warranties on their roof moss treatments for up to three years, but any longer than three years is just not possible for prevention, so after this time you’ll need to get the treatment again. But like I said it’s well worth the cost! And you might as well get your windows and gutters cleaned at the same time because most moss removal companies also offer these services, along with pressure washing if you’re driveway could use a touchup. I found that you save a lot of money on your pressure washing, window cleaning and gutter cleaning if you order them at the same time as your roof cleaning service rather than separately at different times of the year.

In an older article I talked about why I could really use a robot in my life, and I thought I’d mention that here because some roof cleaning companies are developing and experimenting with new technology that allows robots to clean your roof. My roof was cleaned by hand but perhaps by the time you’re reading this article robot roof cleaners will be the new norm, and I’m excited to give that technology a try next time I need my roof cleaned.

So now you should know why moss should be cleaned from your roof right away, and how to go about it. I hope this article is found useful for people who are seeking this information, and I hope your roof stays healthy for many more decades to come!

One thing I’d never trust a robot for is Auto Body Repair Service

automobile

As lover of robots and machines it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that I’m also a lover of cars, trucks and all other vehicles. I’m a huge fan of the electric vehicle craze coming out in the 21st century. And because I love cars so much (I used to collect muscle cars) I would much rather see the delicate hand of a human being touching up my car paint and replacing my tires than a robot doing it. It’s hypocritical, I know, because I often vouch how I could really use a robot or how society should happily adjust as machines replace people’s jobs, and now here I am saying I won’t let a robot work on my muscle car! But we all have that one thing in our lives that we just won’t trust a robot to work on.

If you’re Elvis Presley you might never let a robot touch your hair, or if you’re Michael Jordan you might never let a robot touch your shoe laces. If you’re me, a man with a background in designing and selling machinery to businesses, who used to collect cars, you might never let a robot touch the pristine red paint of your automobile. Muscle cars are supposed to be mechanical and free of robotics, after all. If you want robots to repair your car, go get a Tesla. As tradition upholds, muscle cars should be worked on by human hands, by mechanics and auto body specialists who also have a love for classic cars and know what they’re doing.

I hope I’m allowing you to make sense of this irony. The irony of me, a machine guy who loves robots, not wanting robots to touch my precious muscle cars, is the whole reason I thought this blog post would be entertaining. Indeed, I’d much rather take my car down to Auto Body Shop Hamilton where I know another car lover will work on it than a robotic assembly line. My reasoning is that because muscle cars are supposed to have no computers, just raw engine power and mechanical buttons, that means it’s almost blasphemy to let computer-controlled machines work on it.

This is also why in the far-flung future I suspect human mechanics that know how to work on classic gasoline cars will be highly sought after. When they stop making gasoline powered cars their value will skyrocket and mechanics who know how to work on them will be paid very well, I assume. It’s like how video game consoles that are no longer manufactured today, like the Nintendo Entertainment System, are now worth thousands of dollars.

So now to conclude, let me ask you a question that might make this all make more sense: if you were living in the year 2057 and you had been caring for a muscle car from the 1960s for over 30 years, carefully cleaning off the rust, touching up the paint, etc., then would you let a robot that’s been working on nothing but electric cars touch your precious automobile, or would you search for a human mechanic who specializes in classic cars?

Think about it!

I could really use a robot right about now…

domestic robot assistant

It makes sense why a lot of people are scared to see more machines, more tech and more robots entering everyday life of society. After all there are so many movies about AI taking over the world. But hey don’t judge me when I say “I could really use a robot right now” because I’m about to explain why I think personal robots assistants would be amazing for certain households.

Robots already dominate many sectors of commercial industry, like car manufacturing and other assembly lines. But AI and robotics haven’t yet infiltrated the domestic home too much yet. Of course we have things like Google Home, robot vacuums and automatic espresso machines, but we don’t have robots that can set our tables and clean the windows. If I could buy a domestic robot assistant that could cook, do laundry, clean, etc, I believe, like any machinery in business, it would make a major difference and I would buy it in a heart beat.

Here are 5 reasons why I would love to have a personal robot serving me in my home:

  1. Home security! When I’m not home my robot assistant could stay alert to threats, invaders or hazards and call emergency response teams if something goes wrong. Or, when I’m sleeping it can wake me if we have burglars or a fire.
  2. Back massage! I have quite the hairy back so I don’t blame my wife for not wishing to rub her delicate hands all over it. And so I need a robot who can give me a really good back massage after a hard day. I wouldn’t complain about a foot massage either.
  3. Keeping everything constantly clean! Unlike those little robot vacuums, a humanoid robot assistant could scrub my bathtub, mop behind the toilet, dust the window curtains and even blow the dust out of my computer. My home would be constantly spotless, majorly increasing the quality of life.
  4. Moving and lifting things! Have you ever tried to move a large couch by yourself up stairs? No, I’m assuming you haven’t because that would be crazy. There are some things you just need more than one person to carry, and having a robot assistant means organizing the attic or moving heavy things around would be a breeze.
  5. Last but not least, my favorite reason for having a robot assistant in the home would be just because it’s cool! I grew up reading comic books and science fiction short stories as a boy and so the thought of having my own robot friend to help me with anything is amazing. All my childhood dreams would come true. And I know I aught to be careful in making sure the robot AI doesn’t become a serial killer or light the house on fire. I would make sure to have really good home insurance before getting a robot, and life insurance for my family. I wouldn’t completely trust it, but I would work hard to become it’s fast friend.

So these have been my reasons for wanting a robot assistant in the home. Feel free to contact us at Sirius Machinery and share your reasons for wanting a robot or for fearing them. Thanks and bye for now.

Could a tow truck be completely autonomous?

self-driving tow trucks

Have you ever finished watching a sci-fi movie and thought “Hey, could a self-driving tow truck operate on it’s own without a human?” Because, wouldn’t it be cool if a robot tow truck arrived and beeped like R2D2 before hitching up your car and towing it away? I think that would be cool. But is it possible? And if it is possible in the near future, is it practical. These are the questions I want to answer today.

Electric tow trucks are already on the horizon, and so are self-driving trucks. But what about a self-driving electric tow truck? That’s something completely different! It wouldn’t be a big deal to have an autonomous mail delivery truck, because delivering mail typically isn’t an emergency service. But tow truck operators do more than just tow your car. When responding to collisions, they must stay wary of road hazards, and make impactful moral decisions like should they call an ambulance for someone even if they ask you not to. Therefore, the first concern with having autonomous tow trucks for me is that the AI inside the truck might do fine with hitching up your vehicle and towing it, but when it comes to the hard ethical decisions that a tow truck operator must make the AI might not do so well.

An example would be this: In order to tow your car out of a ditch the AI tow truck must rev the gas to get tire grip in the mud which results in spraying mud all over the side of a nearby house. The AI tow truck might not even know that it’s spraying mud all over the place. A human would step out of the vehicle and assess the situation with reason, whereas a tow truck powered by AI might have some damaging and dangerous limitations in using reason to make rash decisions.

What is cool to consider though is that if a government was going to eventually replace even their police, ambulance drivers and firefighters with fleets of robots, then they might want to practice by starting with something like tow trucks first. So in another sense, if we do see autonomous tow trucks we can expect to see automatous firetrucks, ambulances and police vehicles in the future too!

With todays technology it’s certainly possible to make an autonomous tow truck. A humanoid robot could even sit in the cab when it’s needed for mechanical tasks. But it wouldn’t be practical because the expenses would be outrages and towing companies wouldn’t be able to make a profit. To understand this better, I asked a real tow truck Victoria BC company about this, asked them that, if it was free, would they adopt the first autonomous tow truck into their company? Their answer shed a ton of light on my current opinion.

They basically said that they’d feel sorry for whichever towing company was the first to experiment with AI tow trucks. Eventually, sure, they saw how such technology could make a towing company a lot easier to operate. But to begin with it would make their job a lot harder. Because the tow truck business model has been around for nearly a century, it’s pretty straightforward. People who drive tow trucks like their lifestyle and chose this business for a reason. They don’t want to have their job taken away by a robot. When they get to work every day, they know what to do. By inviting a new complex machine into the equation it wouldn’t make their lives easier. Whoever the first automatous tow truck company is, they theorized that the first few years would be a headache full of hard days. The automatous tow trucks could get stuck during off road winch outs like a robot vacuum on a rug. They imagined that more often than not they’d be called out for a human to ironically tow the AI tow truck out of a hole. From the AI tow truck accidently scratching other vehicles to it it having problems with quick roadside repairs and hooking up the winch properly, not to mention double checking safety precautions, there are so many things that could go wrong. The technology, in other words, would need to be experimented with by a company willing to try it for the first time before it could be used profitably and adopted by other companies. I thought that answer was really thoughtful and I now share the same opinion.

So now you know it would be possible to have autonomous tow trucks, but it definitely wouldn’t be practical. Thanks for reading!

Should you be worried about a machine taking your job?

robots in the workforce

I want to answer this question coming from two different perspectives. The first perspective is the individual’s worry about not being able to find work. The second perspective is a broader point of view for all of civilization.

When it comes to the individual worrying about a machine taking their job, the answer is, yes, if you work a job that a robot could easily do you can expect your job to be at risk in the near future as robotics become affordable for shop owners and other employers. However, if your job involves less manual labor and more thought involved, then you might be in the clear. Jobs like authors, lawyers, business consultants, real estate agents, etc., need to worry little about a robot taking over their positions. However, if you pump gas or flip burgers, it might be prudent to develop a skill that can’t be replaced if you’re worried about being unemployed twenty years down the road.

This now brings us to our broader point of view. I want you to seriously consider that would it really be a bad thing of machines took over the mundane work of doing unenjoyable jobs? From being a cashier to making sandwiches, if you work one of the less exciting jobs then you might find more demand for more satisfying work if robots were to take over the industry.

With all that said, I wouldn’t fear being jobless to the point of poverty, because as machines make their way into the workforce, it will be a slow process and benefits and securities will be put in place for workers who lose their jobs. So, I would consider being excited about robots in the workforce rather than worried, because this is step civilization must take for the betterment of mankind and future generations.

The machines you run your business with make a big difference!

sirius machinery

As someone whose worked around machinery all their life, I’ve seen how upgrading a business’s machinery has helped with immense growth. To explain this in the simplest terms, I’ve created an analogy:

sirius machinery
Machine

Analogy

Imagine life before electric clothes washing machines. Before this domestic appliance entered households, everyone had to wash their clothes by hand. There were whole careers based around doing laundry. This person would be called a laundress and you’d pay them to do your laundry, or you’d wash your own clothes by hand and hang them to dry. But ever since washers and dryers entered homes in North America, the laundress has become a thing of the past, because now its so easy for families to do their own laundry, literally with the push of a button. If something like this simple appliance can change the world, imagine what a machine upgrade could do for your business!

Further Discussion

Take this as a tip that could change everything, speeding the growth of your company no matter what it is. In other terms, you could try to demolish a building with a hammer, or you could use a wrecking ball. By getting the best machines to help run your business, you can save money on labor costs, can provide services more easily, produce products more quickly, and the possibilities have no end.

For example, if you’re an auto body shop, having a machine to lift vehicles in the air so you can work underneath them can save hundreds of hours of labor in a single year. Therefore, I plead you to consider taking the next big step for your business by evaluating your machinery. By simply adding one machine to your business, you could grow immensely. Think about it. Whatever kind of business you have, somewhere our there is a machine designed just for you.

Before farmers had tractors to reap their harvest, they had to plow with horses. A machine can make the big difference, and now you know!

Welcome to the new and improved Sirius Machinery blog

machinery and business blog
machinery and business blog

Sirius Machinery is a blog about machinery from a business perspective and business in general. To learn more about us, visit here.

After decades of combined experience in designing and selling machinery of all sorts across the planet, we’ve settled to write about our passions.

Welcome! We hope you’ll visit often, as we have many exciting articles planned for the future!