Gutter guards! Ahhhhh

#1

Hey guys,

So last week I did a job for windows and gutters. I walked the house and never got on the roof or a ladder. So we show up to the home. My partner climbs to the roof and says… Um they have gutter guards. So I climb to the roof and find out they are fully encapsulated. I tried my hardest to examine the condition of the gutters. To me there was nothing in the gutters. So I called the home owner and told him we was not allowed to remove the gutter guards per our insurance. shhhhh total cover up. I told him we inspected the gutters and they were clear to my knowledge. I informed him that charging him $199 to clean his gutters was not necessary or needed. He informed me there was areas of concerns and the water just runs right off onto the ground. We took a hose and walked every inch of the property running water down the roof and examined the problem. Seems to me any decent rain overcomes the gutter guards and runs right over top onto the porch and landscape (in about 5 areas.) We spent 1.5 hrs on the roof. We cleared debris from the tops of the gutter guards and places around the roof line (minimal debris.) We flushed all lengths of gutters and down spouts. I charged him $50 and then for the window cleaning. I felt horrible. I had no idea what to do. Tonight I got another request for a estimate for gutter cleaning. Drove over and of course, GUTTER GUARDS!! So after my last experience I just decided that I would no longer take on jobs with gutter guards until I learn more. So now you know my last experience. WHAT THE HECK DO YOU GUYS DO? Do you clean gutters with gutter guards? If so, How? Without unbolting every bolt there was no way to I could think of to get them cleaned. Thanks for the help.

#2

Welcome to another kettle of fish in the window cleaning arena. Do a search here and see what you can find out. Also, do a web search. There are some great articles on pro and con issues. Read up, charge double the rate for gutter guards and educate yourself and the customer on gutter guard upkeep and maintenance.

More stuff; you can find this: Gutter Guards
Gutter guards are a waste of money. Quotes from articles:
Gutter Guard Test Conclusion
After seeing what happened I came to the conclusion most gutter guards were a WASTE OF MONEY. You’d still have to get up on your roof to clean the gutter guards. Why not just take the money you’d pay for the gutter guards and use it to pay a handyman to clean the gutters twice a year?
It appears that every single design that I tested failed in the springtime. This spring, we had a normal amount of debris fall from our trees. It remained clogged even after repeated windy days. I was able to brush the debris off the top and spray with a hose through the diamond knockouts to flush the gutter.

Keep in mind that the installation of any gutter guard product will not eliminate entirely the task of cleaning your gutters. These products will simply reduce the amount of times you have to do it.

I decided to remove the white gutter covers on my garage. It was one of the gutter guards. These gutter covers had been in place approximately five years. I knew what I was going to see in the gutters but was surprised to say the least. Yuck!

… a one-half inch thick layer of muck goo covered the entire bottom of the gutter. I pulled away some of it so I could see the bottom of the gutter. The muck was a mixture of decayed organic matter and granules from the shingles.
Yesterday, I spent 2 hours cleaning out this foul muck in the bottom of my gutters that had clogged them up. I ripped off my gutter covers and threw them in the trash.

I bought into the “never clean” line and purchased a system that had a solid cover over the gutter. Clogged up within 6 months! The company did come out and clean them, but after we had a major overflow and basement flooding. The company knows its product is not clog free – they even had the gall to give me a special hose adapter so I could flush out their “clog free” gutters. I have looked at all the claims for gutter protection and have concluded that a regular gutter system with 3-4 time yearly cleaning is the preferred way to go.

So…more research, more education. Others will chime in. I know some up sell to install gutter guards. It won’t be me. :thinking:

#3

Depends on how bad you need the work. I used to clean gutters with guards and now I just ask the customer if they have leaf guards and if they say yes I tell them I don’t clean gutters with leaf guards on them because often they are too difficult to re-install correctly.

If you elect to clean them you probably only need to remove every other one or every third one if you can get away with it. Charge double is what I would do. I have lost a lot of money monkeying around with gutter guards. I won’t anymore.

#4

Yup… Do not need the money. I dont even think I will do them if it was for 1000.00. I just dont want the responsibility of removing and then reassembling them. Let alone the possibility of a bad review cause we stink at cleaning them. @LoveGlass thanks dude. I will look some more.

#5

we avoid them as much as possible.

If it is a fixed helmet style guard then we use a WFP and an old brush.

Ensures all the gaps are clear and free and removes organic material off the aluminum.

If it can be removed, cleaned and re-installed it’s not worth the frustration or money even if price through the roof.

#6

I charge for removal and reinstalling. I try and convince them to leave them off and upsell a routine gutter clean once or twice a year. But st the same time I’ve installed tons of gutter guards all because that’s what the home owner wants lol