Gutter Cleaning

[BrianMDTX]

Not counting inflation, but after we moved to Texas, we noticed the cost of having gutters cleaned was way higher than we paid in Maryland, and with much less linear feet of gutters. Why I do not know. After getting gouged once, I figured I’d bite the bullet and do them myself. OMG it’s nasty! I used to clean my own years ago but haven’t done so in almost ten years. 
 

But…as it’s pouring cats and dogs right now, I’m glad I did it yesterday. The leaves are bad, but the pine needles are the worst. They decompose into muck. 
 

I’ve often contemplated gutter guards or similar, but for the price I wonder how well they truly work. 

[scaleface]

Leaf blower .

[BrianMDTX]

8 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Leaf blower .

I used to use my pressure washer. Both make a mess! 

[Jigfishn10]

An inexpensive (if that still exists  ) electric pressure washer works great with decomposing pine needles. 

 

I know what you mean though, not a fun job to do either way.

 

EDIT

Brian, I think you an I posted at the same time...sorry, man.  

[Mike L]

Being surrounded by oak trees one of the best things I ever did was put the leaf guards on. 

If you decide to also, make sure you check all the different types as some are better for pine needles 
 

 

Mike

[BrianMDTX]

lol. Second time today with simultaneous posts for me. One more for the hat trick!

[DitchPanda]

Best way I've found for me is take my down spout off where I connects to the gutter then stick my garden hose in the other end of the gutter and flush it out. Works great on the nasty mucky stuff like you described...fresh leaves not so much.

[Jig Man]

The best way I have found is to put a shield over the gutter to keep gunk out.

[gim]

If you are getting a lot of leaves, needles, and other debris in there, then screens or leaf guards are the way to go. I don’t have them on my current house, as the trees aren’t really mature or tall enough yet. I hade screens on my last house though.

 

I’ve seen gutters so clogged with crap that weeds were growing out of it. Pure laziness. And then they wonder why there’s no water coming out of the down spout when it’s raining.

[TnRiver46]

I’ve got a short house with a flat(ish) roof, makes easy work of it. Just walk around and clean them out with my paws. Sometimes I take a foam square with me to sit on, they stick to asphalt shingles like glue .

[A-Jay]

Had gutters when we lived in NJ.

Giant PIA. 

We could never have gutters up here.

They would fill with snow & ice and rip right off the house.

Instead, everywhere there is run off, I buried 8 ft long 4x4's slightly above ground level.

Water comes off the roof, hits the wood and disperses into the ground.

Helps that the soil here is almost completely sand. 

Acorns roll off but I still need to blow the leaves off once or twice a year.

A-Jay

 

[BrianMDTX]

10 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Had gutters when we lived in NJ.

Giant PIA. 

We could never have gutters up here.

They would fill with snow & ice and rip right off the house.

Instead, everywhere there is run off, I buried 8 ft long 4x4's slightly above ground level.

Water comes off the roof, hits the wood and disperses into the ground.

Helps that the soil here is almost completely sand. 

Acorns roll off but I still need to blow the leaves off once or twice a year.

A-Jay

 

Might not have gotten the snow amounts annually that you see, but we can get some awfully deep snowfalls in MD at times (about 10 years ago we had back-to-back Saturday blizzards with 30”+ each winter storm). To be honest, I never saw anyone have a problem as long as they cared for their gutters properly. 
 

It would be interesting to see if there’s any research on which states tend to have gutters vs. those that don’t. 
 

Yeah. It’s a Sunday. It’s pouring. I just spooled 12 lb. YZH on my last baitcaster that needed line. Almost 2 hours before KO. What the heck else do I have to do? ?

[Bankbeater]

 I have to clean out my gutters 3 or 4 times a year.  I start at one end and just work my way down.  Never any fun.

[scaleface]

2 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

 I have to clean out my gutters 3 or 4 times a year.  I start at one end and just work my way down.  Never any fun.

Me too. Leaves and Monkey squirts .18V electric Leaf blower and its done in five minutes .

[A-Jay]

37 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Me too. Leaves and Monkey squirts .18V electric Leaf blower and its done in five minutes .

Guess I never realized

just how prevalent that northern strain Missouri monkey actually was. 

Sounds bad. 

A-Jay

[scaleface]

19 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Guess I never realized

just how prevalent that northern strain Missouri monkey actually was. 

Sounds bad. 

A-Jay

Yeah , I dont know what they are called elsewhere but here they are monkey-squirts.

[BrianMDTX]

2 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Yeah , I dont know what they are called elsewhere but here they are monkey-squirts.

Man. Monkey squirts sounds like some really bad Sunday morning after a 12-hour bender on a Saturday. With two stops at Taco Bell. 

[DogBone_384]

We had LeafGuard gutters installed when we built our house in ‘01.

 

I live in Massachusetts and have oaks around the house.

 

I’ve never had to clean them.

[volzfan59]

I don't know the brand name, but I put gutter guards from Lowe's on my last house in TN. They were white in color, came in 3' sections. One side slide under the bottom shingles approx. 4". The other side was contoured to fit over the outer edge of the gutter. Secured it with self tapping, hex head sheet metal screws. Worked great. I think that material's were around $100.00 at the time. Took about four hours to do a 3000 square foot home. Leaf Guard wanted around $2000.00 to install their product on the house.

 

Funny thing, I have noticed since moving to southern Arkansas, few homes have gutters. 

[BrianMDTX]

11 hours ago, volzfan59 said:

I don't know the brand name, but I put gutter guards from Lowe's on my last house in TN. They were white in color, came in 3' sections. One side slide under the bottom shingles approx. 4". The other side was contoured to fit over the outer edge of the gutter. Secured it with self tapping, hex head sheet metal screws. Worked great. I think that material's were around $100.00 at the time. Took about four hours to do a 3000 square foot home. Leaf Guard wanted around $2000.00 to install their product on the house.

 

Funny thing, I have noticed since moving to southern Arkansas, few homes have gutters. 

That’s what I noticed moving to Texas. I’m guessing the lack of basements has something to do with that. 
 

Man, I miss having a basement. So much extra space. 

[J Francho]

12 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

Man. Monkey squirts sounds like some really bad Sunday morning after a 12-hour bender on a Saturday. With two stops at Taco Bell. 

Yeah, a google search did not end well.  Still don't know what they're talking about, lol.

[volzfan59]

1 hour ago, BrianMDTX said:

That’s what I noticed moving to Texas. I’m guessing the lack of basements has something to do with that. 
 

Man, I miss having a basement. So much extra space. 

Dude, I agree with you! I miss having a basement too.

[scaleface]

3 hours ago, J Francho said:

Yeah, a google search did not end well.  Still don't know what they're talking about, lol.

Must be a Missouri thing . I imagine the other Missouri members know what I'm referring too. Except Largemouth shad . He hasnt been here long enough .

[casts_by_fly]

This is our first house to own (we rented and moved a lot the prior 15 years) so my first experience with dealing with cleaning gutters (I've installed them, just not had to clean them).  We are also surrounded by trees- mostly oak with a lot of beech and ash mixed in.  Our first year I didn't think about it.  The second spring the gutters were full to the point that when we had heavy rain I was getting backups and overflows in heavy collection spots.  I cleaned them out that summer by hand (with a hose to spray residue) but learned my lesson.  Last summer when I cleaned them out I put gutter guards in place across most of the house.  I didn't manage to get all of it done and need to do the rest this spring, but it makes such a big difference with big leaves.  Mostly the wind just blows them off.  My gutters are about 26-28' off the ground at the highest spots (lowest ground spots) so working from a 32' ladder isn't fun.  But the roof is about a 5/12 pitch which is more than I'm standing on 30' off the ground to reach down into the gutters. 

 

1 hour ago, volzfan59 said:

Dude, I agree with you! I miss having a basement too.

 

We've not had a proper basement in a long time.  UK houses don't really have them.  Now we have a ~2500 square foot unfinished basement that I can hang things from the ceiling joists, put industrial racking all over for shelves, and still have a 20 yard archery range downstairs.  It makes such a difference.  I only wish I didn't have a set of narrow steps and a tight turn at the top to get into the basement.  

[padlin]

You can have a basement hatchway added, or is it called a bulkhead.