Gutter guards

We have a similar problem with leaves and long gutters- two 50 ft runs.

We have someone who comes around once a year and cleans them (it costs peanuts and isn't worth the hassle of getting the ladder out etc) but one in particular still gets blocked.

I put one of those giant pipe cleaner things in- the gutter installer recommended to only fit it for about 1/2 the run. I seems to have done the trick.

The other gutter still gets blocked, I need to fit one in there.

When our gutter cleaner man visited, there was noticeably less gunk to remove from the gutter with the pipe cleaner.

I used both on a gutter that drained 2 large areas of profiled steel on either side of a flat roof. The Hedgehog worked, the mesh blocked. I still had to get onto the flat roof to remove leaves and routinely removed the Hedgehog to remove smaller debris but think it would have lasted a couple of years without attention.

AJH

probably the only use for an electric leaf blower, with an extension with a hockey stick profile so that you can blast them out of the gutters, while standing on the ground.

Unfortunately that wouldn't work in my case. The gutter in question is a roof gully, or is it a roof valley, something like this but one side glass and PVC glazing bars.

It's a valley, not a gutter. And a nicely-made one, complete with steps to accomodate thermal creep of the lead. I'm not convinced they are there for bracing purposes but should not prevent the use of a long decorators alumium extending pole with a scraper or brush on the end.

I don't suppose having a small dormer added to the roof at the far end is possible is it ?. If so you could just get into the loft and hose or leaf-blow them away.

Yes, have used these for the last 5 years:

They work well, particularly for moss if you are lucky, although you can't always get them to fit exactly as shown on the Screwfix website. However, they do slow the blocking process down, so you don't have to clean the gutters so often. The major problem we have is two long runs from two roof apices at right-angles to each other. Moss runs down the valley gutter from both roofs to collect at the gutter corners. These need cleaning out at least once a year. For that I use a garden trowel to get the worst out (it seems to be a mix of rotted vegetation and weathered concrete from the roof tiles). Once the worst has been removed, I take the drainpipe flow away from the drain, and wash everything through with a jet of water. That way I avoid getting a blocked drain from washing too much gunge down it.

One area I haven't used them is in the "V" between the bungalow and conservatory pitches roofs, as I can't reach the box gutter there.. I did cut some longish pieces of 1 cm sq wire mesh which helps keep most of the stuff out of that gutter, but one day I'm going to have to face clearing the build-up of muck on the mesh!

I did wonder about making a curve from the mesh (using a piece of gutter as a mandrel) and using that above the box channel, but never got round to it.

I didn't mean the picture to be taken too literally. I just wanted to indicate that there were roof slopes on either side, rather than just on one side like a conventional gutter. My gutter/gully/valley is horizontal with no steps, such as probably exists between this conservatory and the adjacent roof

No chance!

Thanks Jeff; that's just my situation! I'll get a few of the Screwfix ones and see how/if they fit in any way. Failing that, I might try the pipe-cleaner recommended by others here (thanks to BR and AJH for that), or last of all, simply some fine-mesh wire netting, cut to size and moulded to fit.

Well, not personally, but the mesh seems to work better than the long rod with a brush on the end type as those are just what they look like a way to push all the crud out. Of course if all this crud decides on mass to fall in the middle of the conservatory roof, somebody will need to try to get rid of it. the mesh normally washes the leaves off onto the roof but in smaller lumps. Of course somebody will be along any time now with the opposite advice, and it may well depend on what trees are around and air flow. In the end I fancy you might need to get a person in to declog whatever you do as long as a gutter exists in a place you cannot get at. Brian