Are you a Dallas-Ft. Worth home-owner with gutters that need to be cleaned? There are a few tools that will make the job easier and more effective if you do the job yourself. In this blog, we’ll take a quick look at the best tools to use plus our recommended gutter-cleaning process.
First, let’s talk for a minute about why you should keep your gutters clean.
The Importance of Keeping Gutters Clean
The reason gutters are installed on a home or building is to carry rainwater runoff from a roof to a place away from the house. When gutters get filled up with leaves, decomposed organic matter, twigs, asphalt shingle granules, toys, and whatnot, water cannot flow through them freely. Instead, water overflows the gutters and falls onto walkways, driveways, porches, decks, and plants below. Only empty gutters do best what they’re designed to do.
Using the Right Tools Makes Dallas-Ft. Worth Gutter Cleaning Easier
You don’t have to have the whole list of tools below. Some are essential (like the ladder) while others are nice to have but optional.
- Extension ladder with gutter grips
- Gloves
- Garbage bags or yard waste bin
- Trowel (hand spade)
- Wheelbarrow
- Garden hose with sprayer
- Leaf blower
- Leaf blower with gutter cleaning attachment
- Pressure washer
Five Steps to Getting Your Gutters Clean
STEP ONE: Clean Out the Downspouts
If extenders are attached to your downspouts, remove them (you might need pliers to loosen the screws). Push a water hose as far up the downspout as you can and run water to flush it out. If it’s blocked, run a snake or something similar up the downspout to break up and loosen the mass.
STEP TWO: Set Up a Ladder
Use an extension ladder to access your gutters from above them. Set the ladder against the gutter and stabilize it with ladder grips so it won’t slide off while you’re on it.
STEP THREE: Get the Big Stuff Out First
Remove large objects such as branches, twigs, chunks of shingles, plants, golf balls, Frisbees, and action figures.
STEP FOUR: Hand-Remove Debris or Spray It Out
The choice between hand-removing debris or spraying it out comes down to the mess you’re willing to tolerate. Cleaning gutters by hand—taking out handfuls of debris and throwing it down to the ground—is neat. Spraying leaves out with a hose sends debris everywhere.
Gutters that haven’t been cleaned for a long time will have loose leaves resting on top of a layer of compacted, decomposed leaves. This under layer is a heavy, solid mass, only removable by hand or with a pressurized water stream from a power washer. Again, pressure-washing debris out of a gutter will usually send that matter onto the roof and all surfaces below.
STEP FIVE: Rinsing Gutters & Downspouts
When the gutters are mostly debris-free, rinse them out with water from a garden hose or a pressure washer at a light setting. When water comes out freely from the downspout, it’s confirmation that both gutters and downspouts are clean, and the job is finished.
STEP SIX: Cleanup
Rinse off walls, windows, porch railings, plants, air conditioners, and anything else that is wearing the debris that you threw down or sprayed out of the gutters. Collect the piles of gutter debris now on the ground and bag them (be prepared—the bags will be heavy) or put them in yard waste trash bins for collection.
Another Option: Call Expert Gutter Cleaners
Don’t want to deal with any of the above? Call a roofing or gutter company in Dallas-Ft. Worth like Prostall Construction and get the pros to clean your gutters: (817) 907-7996.
