Day 29. Clean Your Gutters

Day 29 of “A 30 Day Guide to Spring Cleaning“.

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Cleaning gutters is a dirty and unfun job to do. I wish I had some magical way to help you clean your gutters with ease, but unfortunately I do not. This is not something that I, or my husband look forward to, especially because we have a two story house with gutters that most normal ladders cannot reach on half of our house.

On the other hand, what I can tell you is that maintaining and keeping up with cleaning your gutters will be the only way to make this job a little easier, and slightly less disgusting.

How often should you clean your gutters? You should clean your gutters at least twice a year. Alternatively, if you have a lot of pine trees around your home you should probably clean these once every three months.

If you use a tool like a gutter sprayer or a gutter brush regularly throughout the year it will reduce buildup, and make cleaning your gutters much easier. There are many tools available to assist with gutter cleaning, and each has it’s pro’s and con’s. If I’m being completely honest, other than minimal maintenance, a good old ladder and your hands is honestly the best tool you will use.

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What to clean:

• Gutters
• Downspouts

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Supplies needed:

• Ladder
• Gloves
• Eye protection (optional but suggested)
• Bucket or Tarp (optional but useful)
• Rake (if not using a bucket/tarp)
• Preferred gutter cleaning tools
• Recommended:
  • Gutter Cleaning Scoop ‘paid link’, Yard Gloves, Gutter Cleaning Wand (regular maintenance but not for heavy cleaning)
• Alternative:
  • Your preferred gutter cleaning methods

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Cleaning Your Gutters

There are many different tools advertised to clean your gutters, but after trying a few “from the ground” gutter cleaning tools, I can confidently tell you, there is no better way to clean your gutters than to just use a ladder and your hands. With that being said, if you have very little foliage around your house, meaning very little buildup in your gutters, the Gutter Cleaning Wand (paid link) would be a suitable choice.

If you are like me, you may have a lot of foliage around your house, especially pine trees. If so, you will really want to just get up there and get your hands dirty! You can use an assisting tool such as the Gutter Cleaning Scoop ‘paid link’, this does work well but adds an additional item to hold. Let’s talk about cleaning your gutters.

Steps to Clean Your Gutters

1. Gather your tools for cleaning your gutters. I suggest a ladder, tarp, gloves, and motivation!
2. Lay out your tarp under the area you will be cleaning and put on your gloves.
3. Place your ladder up to your home. Make sure to use the proper safety precautions and to place your ladder on a level area to avoid tipping. It’s suggested to have someone hold the ladder while you are on it.
4. Once you are up to your gutters, start pulling out the built up debris within your gutters using your gloved hands, or your preferred cleaning tool.
5. The tarp is the easiest way to collect and manage the debris you are pulling out. If the tarp is under the area you are cleaning, you can just let the debris fall onto the tarp for easy clean up.
6. Continue to follow the gutter line, moving the ladder as needed, to clean all sections of your gutters.
7. Make sure to clean out from the downspout entrance very well.
8. Clean off your tarp as needed to avoid overfilling. Either place the debris in leaf bags for disposal, bring to a compost area in your yard, or bring to a local compost area if you have one available.
9. Repeat these steps until you have successfully cleaned all gutters on your home.

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Cleaning Clogged Downspouts

If you have heavy foliage around your house, it’s very easy for your downspout to get clogged. Typically, when your downspout is clogged, the two concerning areas are at the top opening in your gutters, and at the elbow at the bottom of your downspout.

Luckily, after following the instructions above, you will have cleared any debris clogging the top of your downspout. This areas is easily accessible once you get on a ladder. The elbow of your downspout can be a little more tricky. The Gutter Cleaning Wand has high pressure water that can be sprayed into the top of your clogged downspout to try to clear the debris clogging the elbow. If this method doesn’t work, you can take the elbow off your downspout to clear it.

Note: Downspout elbows are the sections that curve or create a bend in your downspout, and are separate from the strait downspout sections.

Steps to Remove Your Downspout Elbow

1. Find the space where your downspout connects to your strait sections. There will be a connection point where there is a screw, usually through a gutter strapping.
2. Determine the head of the screw or connector on your elbow and get the proper tool that will remove this.
3. Remove the screw from the gutter strapping and remove the strapping.
4. Pull the elbow downward, off of the strait downspout section. Note: some gutters have more than one elbow. For elbows in the middle or top of your downspout, you need to disconnect from both sides and create space to be able to remove this.
5. Clear the debris from inside the elbow itself, and check into the strait downspout section to remove any debris.
6. Once all debris has been cleared, replace the elbow onto the strait section, replace the strapping, and insert the screw back into it’s intended place.
7. You can spray with the wand one last time through the downspout to clear any residual buildup.

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Maintaining Your Gutters

To maintain your gutters, I highly suggest using the Gutter Cleaning Wand (paid link) about once a month (in heavy foliage areas) or a couple times per season for light coverage areas. Hook this attachment up to your hose and spray out any slight debris buildup to keep your gutters maintained. With proper maintenance, you will likely be able to use this tool as regular cleaning.

If your gutters get buildup faster than once a month will cover, you may need to just complete a full hands on gutter cleaning once every 3 months.

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If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I would be happy to get back with you.

Check out Day 28. Cleaning Outdoor Furniture.

Check out Day 30. Clean Your Garbage Can and Mailbox here.

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