Cleaning Gutters

I assume that it is OK to extend the ladder such that it actually rests on the gutter? Or ideally should you use an extender at the top of the ladder to offset the ladder from the supporting wall?

Reply to
Graham Bean
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I know that this is a diy newsgroup but is it really worthwhile. I have windowcleaners once a month £8 (using a long reach de-ionised water system - no ladders) for a smallish detached house. They cleaned out the gutters using a long reach vacuum for £40 oncluding cleaning the windows afterwards. Worth thinking about?

Malcolm

Reply to
Malcolm Race

Yes. Even uPVC gutter seems to cope. Metal certainly will.

Other materials (eg asbestos) (rare) may or may not.

However, I do not like resting ladders on uPVC because it slips sideways in a very scary way.

I would get one of those ladder stand-offs you can clamp to the latter - a good one makes everything so much more solid.

Reply to
Tim Watts

+1, but my standoff doesn't even need clamps, it has U-shaped supports which slip over the rungs.
Reply to
newshound

Why do you need the ladders to rest on the gutters? Put the ladders up just below the gutters and you can stand on the ladders with your head and arms above the gutters to clear them out.

I managed to do this after a few beers

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Reply to
ARW

So much easier and safer with a stand-off

Reply to
stuart noble

If the gutter is strong enough to take the weight of the ladder it's OK. Most all gutters are, except very old plastic ones that have been weakened by sunlight, and some asbestos ones.

The ladder may slip sideways, especially on plastic guttering. Use a clamp on the gutter to hold it. Wide jawed welding clamps (the top one here)

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are very good, or you could use a little vice. Tie the ladder to it.

It is vitally important that the foot of the ladder does not slip, and that both legs are on firm, even ground.

Bill (45 years aerial installing and never a fall)

Reply to
Bill Wright

Why do you need to clean out your gutters? Corectly installed (ie correct fall) they should self clean in the vast majority of situations.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Here (Scotland) there's an amazing quantity of moss etc that seems to come off the roof into the gutters. I don't want that flow into downpipes, so there are guards across them, but they get blocked...

Reply to
Jeremy Nicoll - news posts

Unless they are very convoluted it just end up in the gully and be a damn site easier to clean out than faffing about on ladders at gutter height. And how do you clean the gutters anyway without flushing some stuff down the down pipes anyway?

Well if the guards are getting blocked you may as well let the moss get into the gutter and be washed down to the gully for removal. That's if it just doesn't decompose in the gully and be washed through.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

But they don't, thanks heavens. I clean out half a dozen a month at least, easy money.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

You are dicing with death resting a ladder on any kind of guttering.

And if the ladder slips, those brittle plastic brackets, held in by 1" screws, are going to snap, or the clips will break.

The only sensible advice in the post.

I wonder how.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

What's a gully?

The pipes go straight down the wall and underground, to join the drains.

In the past I've used gloved hands, or a round section garden trowel to scoop gunk out of the gutters into a bucket. In some cases where there's not too much gunk I've used a round section blade on a cane (like a lightweight garden hoe) to drag stuff along gutters towards me so as not to have to set up the ladders at quite such frequent intervals. I don't usually flsuh the gutters with water, as the local climate can be relied on to do so quite soon enough.

Reply to
Jeremy Nicoll - news posts

You're pissing in the wind making out you know better than me on this topic. For years when I was doing contract rigging I was finding a safe way to get onto around 60 roofs a week. My advice might not be what the Elf and Safety insist on, but that's because it's based a massive amount of practical experience rather than book learning. How many roofs have you climbed onto in your career as a handyman? I reckon I did around 80,000.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

But with that level of experience, you'd presumably spot a dodgy gutter a mile off? Whereas someone who only climbs a couple in their lifetime might not recognise it. Personally I always use a stand-off it feels so much safer, and I remember how *slowly* I took things when replacing my aerials, especially the transfer between the two ladders ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

It's a matter of common bloody sense. Plastic gutters are not strong enough to support a grown man on a ladder. You also risk damaging the customers property.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

A open drain at the bottom that the downpipe sits over.

I built 2 for my house because I hate new fangled sealed drains - you can't throw a bucket of water down them!

Reply to
Tim Watts

In message , Jeremy Nicoll - news posts writes

Agreed! Just done mine, and with moss, coupled with 'dust' from old slates and leaves from a neighbour's huge trees, they badly needed cleaning. I used a gutter shaped trowel, into a bucket, then removed the end cap and flushed with a hose. Nice clear gutters again - until autumn.

Reply to
News

Yeah, now I have a box of nitrile gloves (from doing some foaming) I'll use those rather than end up with a soggy handful of decomposing chick that was blocking the leafguard that kept overflowing ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

We used to have to do aerial rigging waay back in the 70's with the advent of colour TV and more often than not I accompanied the aerial rigger. Plastic gutters were a bit dicey but never once was there a problem with them they just creaked a bit and on modern houses it was the done thing to dispense with the roof ladder.

Chris who did the bulk of the work was as agile as a monkey and quite small and I rather think weighed sod all.

Not recommended in today's H&S climate of course ....

Reply to
tony sayer

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