Gutter Cleaning Tips To Protect Your Home (And Your Safety)
If more homeowners knew the proper way to clean out their roof gutters, there would be fewer injuries and deaths and far less property damage. You need to clean your gutters twice a year to make sure they are working properly. If the rainwater doesn’t flow properly through the gutter and downspout system, costly repairs can add up from rainwater damage.
It’s time to clean out those clogged gutters so let’s do it safely.
Cleaning out gutters is pretty easy as long as you know what you are doing. The trick is approaching it from a “safety first” perspective.
There are a variety of gutter cleaning tips that can help you do this. Here are some basic tips to follow.
Practice Ladder Safety
- Always let someone know you will be using a ladder anytime you are working on cleaning your gutters or climbing onto your roof.
- Use a safe and sturdy ladder, preferably one with a small shelf strong enough to hold a five-gallon bucket to collect gutter debris, and make sure to secure the bucket with a security rope.
- A four-legged step ladder is good for a single-story home, and an extension ladder is ideal for a two-story home.
- An orchard ladder is not recommended because there are only three legs for support and they can become unbalanced if you shift too quickly in one direction or another.
- A wooden ladder is also not recommended because they are often wobbly and difficult to safely balance on the ground around your home.
- If you are cleaning gutters for hours upon hours, muscle fatigue can set in from moving the heavy ladder numerous times. It’s important to remain aware of how you feel. When you get tired, that is when an accident is most likely to occur. Take breaks when necessary.
- When opening up a step ladder, make sure the extension-hinge arms are fully extended and locked in place
Utilize A Garden Hose
- Use a garden hose with a pistol-grip trigger spray nozzle.
- This type of spray nozzle allows you to adjust the water pressure with the use of just one hand.
- A pistol-grip trigger spray nozzle can be easily hung over the front edge of the gutter while moving the ladder or while using a gutter scoop.
- This type of spray nozzle is widely available at any big box home improvement or local corner hardware store.
Get A Gutter Scoop
- Scooping out the leafy debris seems to be the best overall method for homeowners that want to clean their own gutters.
- An excellent tool for this job is a plastic scooping tool, which can be purchased at most hardware stores.
- Plastic scooping tools are unique because the front scooping edge is very thin and forms itself to the bottom of the gutter trough, making it easy to scoop out even the toughest debris in any size gutter system.
- Stay away from using a metal scooping tool because the bottom of the gutter and seams can be damaged and scratched.
- Scraping the bottom of a steel gutter can introduce areas to rust, and if the bottom of the gutter is already rusting, the rusting process could accelerate, leading to costly repairs down the road.
Protect Your Hands
- Gloves can help protect hands against dirty, rotting leaf debris that often contains bird, pigeon and squirrel droppings that are ridden with bacteria.
- Gloves can also prevent painful cuts from the torn metal shards of an old, ragged gutter.
- Avoid cotton gloves as they can soak up dirty water that will expose your skin to bacteria.
- Leather gloves are not as flexible and tend to shrivel up when they dry after cleaning.
- Rubber gloves can get poked or torn by metal shards in the gutter.
- Thick, gloves made of suede material tend to be the best for this activity.
Protect Your Eyes
Eye protection is a must because as you are shooting high-pressure water into the gutters, you never know what might fly out at you. We’ve heard stories of people finding rats, birds, frogs, wasps and bees leaving at high speeds once they start removing a clog. The last thing you want to have happen is an eye injury.
Clean Off The Roof
Rake or power wash all debris off the roof first. Otherwise, the next rain will wash all the debris down into the clean gutter, clogging it up again. Also, debris left on the roof can lead to water damming up in valleys, around the chimney, which can cause erosion and roof leaks over time.
Consider Rubber Shoes
If walking on the roof is necessary to perform gutter cleaning, it is good to use rubber-soled shoes. Rubber soles tend to adhere best and prevent slip-and-fall incidents. Rooftops tend to be moist in the morning, so it is best to walk on the roof after the sun is well up in the sky and has dried up all the moisture. Late mornings or early afternoons are the best times to walk on a roof.
Unclog The Downspouts
Make sure the downspouts are clear. After all the gutters are cleaned out, run the water hose down the downspout at full pressure. If the water backs up out of the top, a clog is present. Normally, it can be unclogged by tapping on the side of the downspout. But, if that doesn’t work, the downspout and back need to be removed, and it should be flushed from the bottom. If a clog is present and the downspout is connected to an underground drain, it is best to disconnect the bottom of the downspout from the underground drain. Otherwise, the clog may move to the underground drain and cause you a costly plumbing repair.
Schedule Semiannual Cleanings
Make sure your gutters are cleaned at least twice a year. The main reason for cleaning out gutters is to eliminate the possibility of water damage from rainwater runoff due to a clogged gutter. Another reason is to reduce the possibility of rust corrosion. Even though it may not rain during the summer, if there is debris in the steel gutters, the rusting process can speed up. It’s difficult for rust to speed up with clean gutters. The faster the rusting process, the sooner new gutters will be needed.
Be Mindful Of Power Line Hazards
When cleaning gutters around a power line cable that drops from the power pole to the roof of your home, conduct a visual inspection of the electrical cable where it connects to the roof. This is to ensure that the protective wire insulation hasn’t rubbed off through years of wear-and-tear by weather and nearby trees. If the cable appears to have damage, do not attempt to repair it; instead, call a licensed professional electrical contractor to fix it. If it’s raining and there is an electrical wire problem, do not attempt to clean out the gutters until the wires are fixed; water is a dangerous conductor of electricity. Whether it’s raining or not, it would be a good idea to have the electrical wiring repaired before cleaning out your gutters.
Some other fantastic tips for Summer home maintenance and safety tips can be found here on the Porch blog.
Eight Gutter Cleaning Tips Recap:
- Let someone know you are cleaning your gutters
- Use a safe and secure ladder
- Rake leaves and other debris off the rooftop first
- Wear rubber-soled shoes when walking on the rooftop
- Use a plastic gutter scooping tool
- Wear gloves and proper eyewear
- Unclog downspouts
- Watch out for hazardous power lines
Book your HomeSmiles.com home service today!
If your gutters need cleaned and you’d rather not go to the hassle or risk your health and personal well-being, HomeSmiles is here to help. Gutter cleaning is just one of the 18 point list of services we offer to help keep your home well maintained and your major appliances serviced and running without the costly need for repairs or replacement. To book an appointment for a time that is most convenient for you, simply click here.
