How do Zinc Strips Work?
Since simple plant life forms are the main culprit in deterioration, their reduction is the logical approach to preservation. Zinc strips work when rain rolls over the metal in the strip, and the metal particles are carried down the roof. The environment created keeps the plant life at bay. This set of photos dramatically shows the results of different growing conditions on a small piece of roof. This section of roof is just below a chimney of wood siding. The interface of shakes to wood includes the use of metal flashing. Interestingly, the metal flashing gets various amount of rain running over it, depending on the amount of exposure of metal. Most areas have about 3″ of metal for water to run over, but the area at the side gas about 8X that much. There are other factors here, including the fact that this spot is lined up to get a high amount of shade, but the differences in simple plant life growing here are mainly due to the amount of metal “contamination” in the water, which is th
