Friday, November 27, 2009

Cleaning gutters


One of the best things about the Thanksgiving holiday is that there is a ton of yard work to be done in the Fall, so a couple days off work are ideal to make some headway on the accumulation of dead leaves. Since we moved in our gutters have been horribly clogged. When it rains (which it has been doing a lot of this month), water pours in a continuous waterfall along the entire width of the house. The gutters are thoroughly failing in their purpose. The weight of the sodden rotten leaf matter is literally pulling the gutter off the front of the house.

I could probably have persuaded my landlord to take care of the problem, but cleaning gutters and raking leaves are hallowed parts of the patriarchs yearly cycle, so I figured I would get some practice in. To this end I borrowed a ladder from my grandfather, climbed up it and covered myself in dripping wet decomposing leaf matter. Once all the crud was cleared out I nailed the gutter back in it's proper place. Should hold for a good month, if it doesn't snow.

3 comments:

  1. John,
    Before you have to do your rain gutters again, may I suggest how I clean mine, safely without ladders, cleaner, faster, and easier than with the usual methods? I found a great new tool on-line, called the Gutter Clutter Buster. You can see it in action on their web site. I no longer have to use a ladder, bucket, gloves, scoopes, and drag around the perimeter of my home, damaging my landscaping. I simply connect this attachment tool to my wet/dry vac 2-1/2" hose and it literally vacuums out all wet nasty impacted decomposing leaves, pine needles, snow, sand, bird nest, or whatever gets into your gutters, while I stay safely on the ground. The Gutter Clutter Buster has cut my rain gutter cleaning time in half. This tool is heavy duty, yet lightweight, and is one-piece so you don't have to worry about it coming apart, while cleaning. You can empty the vac hopper into a compost pile or use as extra mulch around you plants to winterize them.
    I'm sold on this new tool and hope you find it helpful for your gutter cleaning as well. Stay well, stay safe, and "Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled!"

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  2. Took me awhile to read all the comments, but I really love the article. It proved to be very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenter's here! It's always nice when you can not only be informed, but also engaged gutter cleaning vancouver! I'm sure you had fun writing this article. This was a nice post and I think it is pretty easy to see from the other comments as well that this post is well written and helpful. Thanks a lot.

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  3. Late fall would be the best time to clean your gutter. Leaves and other debris could clog down the gutter, and downspouts. When cleaning, always make sure that you have protective equipment and gears, such as gloves and safety shoes. Have your ladder placed on a firm ground to avoid accident. By the way, how's your gutter going? Have you repaired it? Or you just replaced it with a new one?

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