Blocked Gutter

[PhilÃÂÂ]

Hello

I have water pis**ng out of the top of my gutter. I had a chap who I called come round today, but his triple 12ft ladder would not reach.. It is a tall house.

I then called another roofer chap and asked him if he had a bigger ladder, he said he had a 3 x 16ft ladder that should be ok. When he turned up, he didn't have his ladder and quoted £50 just to get the ladder on the van...

Anyways to cut a long story short, I am borrowing a triple 16FT ladder at the weekend and having a go myself.

I need some advice, firstly I hate heights and this is one hell of a height.

Also what do I do when I get up there, I thing the blockage is in a small turn about 4-7 inches down the pipe. I was thinking of a straightened out coat hanger and poking it down??

Please help

[JimH]

Don't look down!

[Lurch]

Firstly, don't fall off! Make sure you have an assistant footing the ladder. Ensure the ladder is on firm, level ground. Get the angle right, for every 4' height ensure the base of the ladder is 1' from the wall. If you're going 40' up place the base 10' from the wall. Go to google.co.uk and type ladder safety, theres loads more.

Should work, take a hose up to test it and give it a good jetting as well. ..

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[Owain]

"PhilÅ" wrote | Anyways to cut a long story short, I am borrowing a triple 16FT ladder at | the weekend and having a go myself. | I need some advice, firstly I hate heights and this is one hell of a height.

Especially if you have eaves, you will need a ladder stand-off at the top of the ladder to push the ladder away from the wall, so you can extend the ladder up higher than the gutter without leaning it on the gutter.

Ensure the ladder is *securely* in place especially if the ground is not even.

| Also what do I do when I get up there, I thing the blockage is in a small | turn about 4-7 inches down the pipe. I was thinking of a straightened out | coat hanger and poking it down??

Plastic-covered net curtain wire - springy to go round bends.

Owain

[The Natural Philosopher]

Take a hose up there and push it down. That usually washes any soil away and flushes the whole pipe clean..

[Andrew Mawson]

On your FIRST trip up the ladder take a large screw eye with you, screw it into the gutter board, and lash the ladder to the screw eye. That way the ladder isn't going to slip sideways any distance as you reach out.

Andrew

[PhilÃÂÂÂ]

The wooden board is as old as the house, about 150 years, I think they are pretty weak and I am expecting them to fall away anyways.

Also do I rest the ladder on the gutter, or on the wall under and reach up??

[JimH]

Arse!

[Andrew Mawson]

Well drill and peg the screw eye into the masonry just below the board ! I doubt that it is practical to have the ladder below gutter height and reach up - it all depends on how much eaves overhang you have and the length of your arms. You will find that length of ladder great fun to manoeuvre - just before Christmas I had a chap paint the outside of my 100 year old 3 story house - 45 foot to the gable end - entertaining moving a ladder that size, and although I'm quite beefy, he was a scrap of a wimp (but had the guts to go up there which is more than I would )

Andrew

[PhilÃÂÂÂ]

Mark, I was thinking just that, and am thinking this more so now.

It just looks like a simple job... Hmm I will give it more thought, will probably not sleep much tonight...

Phil

[Mark]

Last year I had a ladder slip away from a wall I was painting and fell 8 feet and broke an ankle. Very painful but I lived to tell the tale. If you fall from that height your dead, pay someone else to risk their life that job isn't worth the risk

[Jim]

Based on your questions--you are way over your head on this idea. But-if you succeed- ???????

[Lee]

Not a helpful reply I know, but when a friend had to replace the gutters on his detached three storey house, he borrowed a cherry-picker from work :) Ok, if you can get one for free and have enough access around the building to actually use it I suppose...

I hate using ladders myself. I'm fine with heights if its a platform or a harness, but I just don't feel safe on a ladder :)

Oh, and watch the weather, gusty winds are no fun when you are up a ladder, especially if you don't like heights anyway...

Lee

[Paul Mc Cann]

I have successfully used the drain cleaner attachment sold by Karcher for their pressure washers to clear blockages in down pipes. All done from ground level. Backward facing jets propel the device.

Paul Mc Cann

[Tim Hardisty]

So, a good excuse to buy a new toy!

Or, failing that, I guess one might get away with pushing a hose pipe up the downpipe until it hits the obstruction then turning it on? Tim Hardisty. Remove HAT before replying

[OxSc]

Of course, the hose should be on a tap connected to the main. The only outside tap I have is fed by the cold water header tank. Pressure drop along the pipework and hose to gutter level would result in not a lot of flow.. I wouldn't want the OP to waste the effort of dragging the hose up whilst grappling with the height problem.

[PJ]

Hello Dave,

Thanks for the response. I presumed ASA plastics of Wigan would produce a short run of these for a particular cabinet manufacturer. I found a lot of plastic moulding companies in the north west and since none of them have a web presence or email addresses I thought that they would not deal with the public.

But as usual, I may be wrong.

Many householders have a blank panel under the kitchen sink and I assumed that someone might have seen this type of fixing in a DIY catalogue. I have looked through Screwfix and B&Q sites without success.

PJ

[R W]

Can you not poke something up from the bottom of the downpipe to dislodge the blockage....?

[PoP]

Then I would suggest you ain't going to cope with this job.

I fell out of a tree when I were a young lad, subsequently anything beyond about 10 feet from the ground is out of my domain. I can just about get to the window ledge on the first floor, but when you get to that height the ladder is flexing under your weight and can bounce around a bit - as you are on it it's easy to panic.

Get someone else to do the ladder climbing is my best advice.

Alternatively, put a ladder up and test yourself by going up a few rungs to see how you get on. But forget about doing any height work for now.

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[Tony Bryer]

A friend of mine has a husband who - to put it mildly - is not d-i-y minded so she does all the practical jobs. When it came to ladders and gutter clearing she was not sure so went to the local and explained that although this was somewhat unorthodox she wanted a test-drive. They agreed and she bought the ladder!