Cleaning Gutters

[tony58]

Well,its that time of the year again.Every year I'm going to come up with a better way.Every year I end up doing the same thing,going up and down the latter scooping them out.I used to get on the roof and blow them out,now I have a metal roof and thats out.Any better ways anybody come up with?
Thanks,
Tony

 

[MasterMech]

Single story house by chance? They make gutter kits for handheld blowers that work well. Basically a pipe extension that allows you to walk the gutters from the ground.

 

[nate379]

I have a wand that hooks to the water hose that works pretty well.

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Buy a kit, or sweat however much copper you need together with a 180 U on the end, hook on a hose, call it good. It will be messy, but it will clear it out.

I live buy 50 cotton woods, I know your pain. I just use the hose and blast it out, then pressure wash the wall / ground clean.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

I have a 2 story house on a slope, and dont have a 40 ft ladder to get up there.
So, I fabricated up a 5 ft section of pvc and then put a "u" on the end of it.....I attach it to my shop vac and can either vacuum out the pine needles, or switch the hose to exhaust and blow them all out.

 

[MasterMech]

I have a 2 story house on a slope, and dont have a 40 ft ladder to get up there.
So, I fabricated up a 5 ft section of pvc and then put a "u" on the end of it.....I attach it to my shop vac and can either vacuum out the pine needles, or switch the hose to exhaust and blow them all out.

This is pretty much how the gutter kits for the handheld blowers work. Just made out of lightweight ABS rather than PVC.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

This is pretty much how the gutter kits for the handheld blowers work. Just made out of lightweight ABS rather than PVC.

Yup, I have seen those....reason I use the shop vac is that I can't really see the top of the gutter, and I have a ton of pine needles so I don't want to blow all the wet pine needles down the downspout as thats where mine get clogged. I can see the ABS being better as its probably a lot lighter.

 

[tony58]

I've got the two story house,but I can reach all my gutters from a 24' ladder.I live around 100' oak trees which means mess almost year round.I tried rigging up a pipe hooked to my backpack blower,had so much force could hardy hold it to control.I've got a big shop I use to clean my pellet stove,might try a pipe on it...Like I said before my metal roof it was easy.Go up on the roof with a gas hand held blower.Now I'm almost 71 ,no more up on the roof days...
Thanks fellows,
Tony

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We put screens on the gutters to keep the crap out rather than having to clean them. Living where we do, they would be packed in no time with leaf.

 

[bsa0021]

Look into leaf filter brand gutter covers. I've seen them at the local fair and they look like a good design. i put HD covers on my house and they work pretty good for the debris that I have to deal with. I found a video comparison of gutter covers on the internet last year before I put the HD stuff on. The guy tried different brands on his own house and determined the leaf filter the winner. Maybe do a search.

 

[CTguy9230]

i just took all mine down....no more cleaning or worrying about them getting blocked up

also no more ice dams in the winter to worry about

 

[mepellet]

i just took all mine down....no more cleaning or worrying about them getting blocked up

also no more ice dams in the winter to worry about

It is still possible to have ice dams when there are no gutters. Gutters do not cause ice dams...

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Ice dams mean your attic is too hot usually, hope you have good flashing if you ditched your gutters. Just saying, because you didnt mention it =)

 

[semipro]

I generally use my yard blower and hands to clean them out.
Thing about the gutter guards is that the ones that work well for leaves may not work well for pine needles.

 

[Dougsey]

I use aluminum downsput with a couple of 90's at the end connected to the leaf blower.

 

[lukem]

I just run my trees through the wood stove. They seem to stop getting leaves in the gutters after that.

 

[Highbeam]

I just run my trees through the wood stove. They seem to stop getting leaves in the gutters after that.

I did the same thing. Cut all the trees down so no more gutter junk.

Prior to that I was a walk the roof with the leaf blower blasting out the junk. On a dry day, and with proper shoes, even a metal roof offers good traction unless it is really steep.

 

[mepellet]

Look into leaf filter brand gutter covers. I've seen them at the local fair and they look like a good design. i put HD covers on my house and they work pretty good for the debris that I have to deal with. I found a video comparison of gutter covers on the internet last year before I put the HD stuff on. The guy tried different brands on his own house and determined the leaf filter the winner. Maybe do a search.

Which version from HD did you use?

Does anyone else have any leaf guard system installed?