Slimey, mossy courtyard, help please!

Our new house is half way up a mountain in Wales. The north facing courtyard is so covered in slime you can skate across it. The surface is tarmac which looks pretty ugly anyway. I would love to gravel it after pressure washing but would this get even more green and nasty?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

It could be because the area is shaded. hope this helps

I have the same problem except I have steps to contend with as well,and often I have gone head over heels on the green slime that comes with all the wet.I now wash it down with soapy water and brush it well ,an on going thing in winter.

catrinhudson wrote (see)

Our new house is half way up a mountain in Wales. The north facing courtyard is so covered in slime you can skate across it. The surface is tarmac which looks pretty ugly anyway. I would love to gravel it after pressure washing but would this get even more green and nasty?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Possibly -but it would be a lot safer surface-you can get a moss/algae killer for hard surfaces-at least with gravel you can keep raking it over

I don't think gravel over tarmac would provide a safe surface - bound to be "skiddy" because the gravel wouldn't be able to settle/bed in.  You can, however, get moss killer-type stuff which has to be watered in!  There are areas of my garden (paved/some concrete surface) which have, this winter & for the first time ever, gone all greeen & slippy.  If & when the weather dries up a bit, I'm going to try washing/scrubbing over those areas with some bleach solution.  Thank goodness I don't have any wooden decking - the decking in gardens I've come across during the course of my work is positively lethal right now.

The real problem has been all the rain we've had this past year - hope it's not going to continue for 2013, but you never can tell! 

Hyper... I agree, was in a garden last week walking on the decking which was v. dangerous. Even my paving stones are slippy and they have a slightly ridged suraface.

HG make some anti slime products, problem is my slimey stones are right next to flowerbeds and I can't get any real guarantee from the manufacturers that the product won't kill plants.

Try scrubbing the area with a hard brush and a bucket of Jeyes Fluid. It should kill off the algae.

what about speading some soda crystals on the area, then scrub it off?

Thanks everyone for all the helpful replies. I'm off to get scrubbing!