How to Clean Your Gutters

A couple of times a year, you should clean the gutters around your house. This process is not difficult, though it does require that you do it with care so as not to damage the gutters or yourself when you clean them. As often is the case you can do this yourself or hire the work out. If you choose to hire someone to clean the gutters you can either arrange to have a local handyman clean them out or a company that sells gutters. If you hire a company to clean them, they will be more expensive and likely try to sell you guards for your gutters. These have mixed reviews.

If you decide to clean them yourself you need only a few tools to get the work done. First, you require a long ladder. Be careful to lean this under the gutters as they aren’t that strong and you don’t want to crack them. In the gutters you will see leaves, bits of branches, and dirt. The easiest way to clean them is to scoop everything out you can, wear gloves, and put it in the garbage bag you carried up with you. Once full, you can simply drop the bag after first making sure no one, including the dog, is below you and get another from your pocket.

When you want to clean your gutters some people recommend using a leaf blower. The problem with this is twofold. First, it’s heavy to carry up a ladder and you could unbalance yourself and fall. The second is that often the mess you’re cleaning is wet and a leaf blower won’t work well with wet things that are sticking to the sides.

Once the gutters are clean you’ll want to make sure the water will flow down the downspouts properly. The best way to check this is to use your hose to pour water into the gutters and watch as it flows through the now clean downspouts.