How to clean your gutters yourself

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Short answer: Cleaning your own gutters means getting up along the roofline to clear out leaves and debris and flush the downspouts, and that work usually requires a ladder, which is where most of the real risk in this job comes from. A gutter scoop, gloves, and a hose handle the debris part fine, but the height and the ladder are the part worth thinking through honestly before you decide to do it yourself. Many homeowners choose to hire this one out for exactly that reason.

What a gutter cleanout actually involves

A cleanout means getting the leaves and debris out of the gutter itself and flushing the downspouts so water can drain freely again. It does not include brightening the black tiger stripes that build up on the outside of the gutters, which is a separate job done by hand.

If your gutters are overflowing during rain, growing plants out of the debris, or pulling away from the roofline, that is a sign a cleanout is overdue.

The honest risk in this job

The debris itself is not the hard part. Working at height on a ladder along a roofline is, and falls from ladders are one of the most common reasons homeowners get hurt doing routine maintenance around the house. That risk is real whether the gutter is full of a little debris or a lot.

If you are not fully comfortable on a ladder, do not have a stable place to set it, or the roofline is steep or hard to reach safely, that is a legitimate reason to hire the job out rather than push through it yourself.

What you can do from the ground

On a single-story home, a hose-end gutter cleaning wand or an extendable tool can flush out lighter debris from ground level without a ladder at all. A leaf blower with an extension attachment can also clear loose, dry leaves from below on some setups.

None of these ground-level tools fully replace getting up to check the gutter and downspouts directly, but they can knock down the amount of debris before you decide whether the rest is worth doing yourself.

Gutter guards as prevention

Gutter guards reduce how much debris gets into the gutter in the first place, which cuts down on how often a full cleanout is needed. They do not eliminate cleaning entirely, since fine debris and grit can still build up over time, but they stretch out the time between visits.

What a professional cleanout costs

A gutter cleanout runs $175 for a one-story home, $199 for a larger one-story home, and $249 for a two-story home, and it handles both the ladder work and the downspout flushing in one visit. Brightening the tiger stripes on the outside of the gutters is a separate add-on at $95 or $145 if you want that done at the same time.

In Volusia County

Volusia County property records show 56% of homes were built before 1990. Older homes often have more tree cover and roofline wear that adds to how much debris a gutter collects each year. Puma's gutter cleanout runs $175 for a one-story home, $199 for a larger one-story home, and $249 for a two-story home.

Questions people ask

How often do gutters need to be cleaned?

Most homes do well with a cleanout once or twice a year, more often if there is a lot of tree cover nearby that drops leaves and debris.

Is a pressure washer safe to use on gutters?

High pressure aimed at the wrong angle can force water under the roofline or damage the gutter itself, so a gentle approach is the safer choice for the gutters themselves.

What are the black stripes on my gutters from?

Those are oxidation and grime building up on the outside of the gutter over time, separate from the leaves and debris inside it. Brightening them is a separate add-on from a standard cleanout.

Why do people hire out gutter cleaning instead of doing it themselves?

The ladder work along a roofline carries real fall risk, and a lot of homeowners decide that risk is not worth taking on for a job that gets handled quickly by someone set up to do it safely.

Keep reading

Gutter cleaning and brightening across Volusia →