We had a 6700 sq ft tile roof to clean today with gutters all around on both floors, and under Oak Trees. The leaves were wet and impacted. It was a real PITA. Anyone ever blow wet leaves out of a gutter, on a windy day ? They get all over the place.
Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa FL (813) 655-8777 wrote:
Roof Cleaning West Chester PA wrote:
I did it once on a stucco house & spent more time cleaning up after myself than the actual gutters.
We refuse to blow wet leaves out of gutters w/o our customers buying a house wash
Make no mistake, if you have enough wet leaves in gutters, you will wind up washing the house anyway,, so might as well get paid for it
AMEN!!!! I live in the land of oak trees, seems like every gutter I touch is full of wet nasty decomposing leaves.
Even though I HATE cranking my PW up, I bought a "gutter ball" from Sunbrite with the gift certificate I won at NCE Tampa. Gonna give it a try one of these days.
-- Edited by sweetwaterfish on Monday 1st of August 2011 11:25:27 PM
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Ray Burke
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Last week I ran into this issue. I had to blow the roof off and decided to do it with a leaf blower. It worked really nice. I also tried to hook it up to where it would vacume the leaves and that worked nice too. I was able to suck the leaves out then when the bag got full dump them into a trash bag.
Have you guys ever tried plugging the outlet of the gutter, filling the gutter up with water. Unplug the outlet, start at that same end, use a brush or even your hand and break loose the gutter mess?
I have several gutter cleaning customers and the best way to do this is pull the crap out and throw it in a bucket. Yes it takes longer but its less time than cleaning up the mess you'll make with a PW.
Last week I ran into this issue. I had to blow the roof off and decided to do it with a leaf blower. It worked really nice. I also tried to hook it up to where it would vacume the leaves and that worked nice too. I was able to suck the leaves out then when the bag got full dump them into a trash bag.
We use a leaf blower made by Husqvarna to blow gutters.
Cleaning gutters aint easy. Cant blow off any downspout, Nothing is easy, but today! with a diff tip, percarbonate. Grayed wood! Didnt even have to go with grain of the wood.
This thread died. Sorry. Really impressed with something other day. Gutter cleaning.
Wet leaves out of gutters. Sometimes debris, from the gutter cleaning, is on the siding. We do try to get rid of it. Is what it is. We do clean up after ourselves.
Most gutter cleaners use backpacks. I dont. What I use seems to be disontinued?
I have not blown out leaves from gutters in 10 years, way way too messy. Do not use a pressure washer because it makes an even bigger mess. It takes a little longer but at $2 per foot for 1 story and $2.50 for 2 story and $3 for 3 story and a promise that you will not leave any leaves or sludge all over a clients nice yard or shrubs just buy some heavy duty gloves sit on your butt have your helper hold the heavy duty 5 mil 50 gallon bag and fill it up by hand and work your way around the house. If the leaves are not wet and the gutters are not full of granules then I use a heavy duty Rigid Shop-Vac and vac out the leaves with ease, been doing it for years and buy the "wet only" filter since the paper ones just fall apart in a day and the wet only filters which are black in color and made of plastic will never go bad and is easy to rinse out. Plus same Rigid Vac 8 years old and still sucking out leaves from gutters, you will occasionally get a stick or a clump stuck in the hose or pipe attachment just squeeze the hose and it should dislodge or put the hose where it blows out to clear the vac hose.
I do a few condos in Winter Park where oak trees are abundant and never stop dropping leaves and I can do 500 feet of packed gutters in about 2 hours and I am done.
Need 2 - 100' ext. cords, a box of 3 to 5 mil heavy duty 50 gallon bags, heavy duty gloves, buy 3 extra pipe attachments ( you can join them together so you are not bent over killing your back ) on a flat roof keep wheels on and on a pitched roof take off the wheels. They just pop right off, and a blower. Handheld Echos have been my choice just to blow everything down to the edge. You will get some debris to fall off the roof but you will look more professional by keeping 95% or more of the debris contained and bagged.
Pine Needles aka Crime Needles: The vac will not pick up but are easy to hand clean and bag since when you grab a handful they all are usually interlinked together and you can pretty much roll them up like hay and stuff them in the bag.
Around $200 investment, 10 minutes to get used to doing and put them on a quarterly, bi-annually or annual cleaning agreement depending on how bad they get, I also put that chicken wire screening over downspouts to keep debris from getting stuck once I clear a downspout. Customers love it and eat it up like cake. I make roughly an extra 50k a year just cleaning gutters.
I know I am helping my competition but I make enough doing it this way and been doing for so long it will not hurt me in any way.
-- Edited by JHWorth on Monday 8th of August 2011 06:52:36 PM
-- Edited by JHWorth on Monday 8th of August 2011 07:00:33 PM
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