Clearing Gutters

[philipuk]

Does anyone on the group know of a device that would allow me to clear my gutters without risking my life on a wobbly ladder or calling a man in at ++expense?

Philip

[Ian Jackson]

In message , " [e-mail]" writes

I have concrete/cement tiles, with a coloured sand facing. These seem to be the ideal surface for growing moss (the large clumpy type). The gutters keep getting filled with lumps which have become detached from the roof, and also with the sand from the facing of the tiles.

Fortunately, the local birds (especially the blackbirds) help out by looking for things to eat in the gutters. They pick up the lumps of moss, and throw them aside, and they land up on the ground (where I can easily pick them up). So when I occasionally do venture up to check the gutters, what I find is mainly fine sand. Now if only I could train the blackbirds to clear the sand........

But sorry, I can't advise about a human-operated device for clearing the gutter.

[Timothy Murphy]

I'm very interested in this question. I see there is an "iRobot Looj"

which is supposed to help. I wonder if anyone has tried this?

[Bob Eager]

Aha. So a bird food dispenser on a pole, to put the food *in* the gutter...

[Andy Burns]

This pole system has different heads, one of which is a gutter cleaning attachment, seems to be available from many .uk and .ie webshops, not amazingly cheap though

[Rob]

Probably not a bad idea! Magpies kept mine clear.

Rob

[Ian Jackson]

question, where does all the rubbish go? Yes, you can clear a gutter with a hose pipe, but you don't want to be flushing the junk into down-spout, and into the drains//soakaway.

Actually, because of lack of accessibility, I do sometimes use a hosepipe to clear a gutter on the garage. It's a straight run with stopsends. I block the top of the spout with a rag, and remove one of the stopends. The grot then cascades onto the ground beneath - but the gutter is immaculate!

[ARWadsworth]

Send the wife up the ladders?

[The Medway Handyman]

Drain rods with a drop scraper. Still need the ladder, but don't have to keep on moving it.

[Dave Liquorice]

So take the end of the down spout out of the drain before flushing your gutters... You could then place the end in a large bin to catch the grunge and not have it spattered all over the place after falling

20'...

[The Natural Philosopher]

I use an Al. pole that is a bit shepherds crook shaped.

[km]

To avoid this problem I bought these:

[Ian Jackson]

In message , km

[Andrew Gabriel]

I made up a long length of copper pipe, bent into a shepherds crook with the end hammered flat to make a bit of a jet. It works, but chiefly it was a source of great entertainment for the neighbours, who all came out to watch me washing the mud (mostly sand) out of the gutters, which went all down the front of the house and all over me. It all hosed off, but they still found it very amusing. Unless you want to be washing the sand out of your eyes for the next week, goggles (preferably sealed swimming goggles) are essential.

Don't use high pressure - you may find it blows the gutter seals out if they're in less than perfect condition.

If you can, disconnect downpipe from soakaway while you do this so you don't wash the muck into it.

The shepherds crook pipe is about 4.5m long 15mm copper, and this is too long a length of copper pipe to be self-supporting, so I had to hold it dead vertical to move it, particularly when full of water. Something stiffer would have been better.

However, now that I have slowly completed replacement of all the guttering, nothing gets stuck in the replaced gutters, so I don't have to do it anymore. Don't know if that's because the guttering has a more polished finish, or if it's because I got the fall on it correct. There isn't a lot of moss on my roof, and when I was up there on scaffolding, I did knock off the few large clumps that were there, although some new ones have formed since.

[SS]

I am sure I read somewhere long time ago about putting a copper wire along the ridge of the roof and the small amounts of trace copper that run down prevented moss from forming, or was it an urban myth. Mind you it would be a good attraction for lightning!

[Ian Jackson]

In message , SS writes

I think the copper thing is true. It's something I've considered looking into.

I doubt if it would be a serious 'attraction' for lightning. The TV aerial is probably much more efficient!