Ideas for Cleaning Gutters Safely

I have 3 full-time employees. Gutter Cleaning makes up half of our revenue. I don’t want to give up gutter cleaning, but I would like to figure out a way to do it safely. It seems that on most jobs we have no choice but to clean from the roof, and there is nothing to tie off to.

As I have thought about it, I have come up with these options:

  1. Stop doing gutter cleaning. That’s not a good option, because as I have said it makes up half of our revenue, and would leave us with almost no work for about 5 months of the year.

  2. Do all gutter cleaning from ladders. However, we have discovered that most homes have at least a portion of gutter that can’t be accessed by ladders. Most of the homes we clean have a very narrow side walkway that is extremely difficult to get a 28’ ladder in and climb. Not to mention, trying to move it and climb again every few feet.

If I was the only one doing the work, I wouldn’t mind so much, but now that there are employees, I really want to figure this out.

How do you who have employees do it? Have you discovered a safe and efficient way to clean from the roof?

i stopped gutter cleaning and all 3 storey work with my employees on january 1 ,2016 . i saw the risks and i just knew that someone was going to slip at some point ,especially as the work in those areas was forever increasing,pushing the limits .who knows if that worker is tired maybe hes been up all night so you think hes all right to walk that roof - but hes not etc

in the period after i stopped i took a big drop in revenue, due mostly because i had been willing to take on jobs that others shied awayfrom, id got a big slice of repeating high work -but i was tired of the challenge and now i was just seeing the risks . trouble is theres a heck of a lot of risky work thats ripe for the picking and very good money ,so it never stops.

in fact it took me well over a year to bounce back once id decided enuf is enuf - but i knew id made the right decision.

once i increased my efforts to find more of the low window cleaning work [by facebook mostly] to fill the gaps in the diary im much happier for it

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Have you considered a VAC system, so that it can be performed from the ground. Systems are widely available, but aren’t cheap to purchase, but may be cheaper than stopping the service.

Just a thought.

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I have considered a VAC system. However, I have questions about it. Maybe some of you who have used one could help me out.

  1. Many homes we service have gutter guards (screens over the gutters to keep leaves and debris out of the gutters). The gutter vac wouldn’t help on these gutters right? You would still have to climb up a ladder or get on a roof and unfasten or unscrew all the screens, remove them, use the Gutter Vac to clean, then reattach them.

  2. Whenever we clean gutters, we pour water down the downspouts to make sure they flush correctly. So, even if we used the Gutter Vac option, we would still have to ladder up and pour water down the downspouts. That kind of defeats the purpose of being able to clean from the ground.

  3. A lot of the gutters we clean are filled with water and mud. I’m not sure whether a VAC system would even be strong enough to remove that stuff.

Is there anyone with experience who can answer these questions for me? Much appreciated!

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Pipe anchor

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That’s pretty cool

Ladder with a standoff seems to be the safest. Using a telescoping pole with brush or square spade of some sort so that you can have a few ladder positions then drag the debris to you. Yea, it is kind of pain with gutter spikes every few feet, but you soon get into a sort of rhythm.
I use this, but will be trimming the brush bristles much shorter this weekend. It is an Unger 10" brush with rubber squeegee like edge that I cut down to fit inside 4" gutters. You could even cut the bristles off all together.

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I don’t think you can totally eliminate ladder work with a WFP or gutter vac, but it will greatly reduce time off ground and less ladder sets.

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Leaf guards are a problem. They do need to be manually removed, self defeating. Aren’t the companies that install leaf guard systems suppose to guarantee they stay clean? making that their issue?

If using a three motor wet/dry VAC system, it’ll clean just about anything out of the gutters with little problem. As far as your down spouts, simply run a brush on a rotary drive up from the ground level with your VAC at the top, then attach a length of garden hose with the water on to your VAC pipe to flush any remaining small stuff out, repeat if needed.

Check with a mirror system or video drone.

No single save all answer.

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I think you know the answer to this question which is to stop doing gutters from roof. You know what you’re putting your employees in danger by not tying them off while on a roof which is required in any state.

I understand the making money part but you gotta realize that you need to make money in a way that’s not going to put anybody in danger that’s your responsibility as an employer.

You can make really good money by walking roofs but your luck will eventually run out.

The answer is stop doing gutters or charge enough to be profitable doing it the proper way.

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jhans, I actually agree with you. I want to do gutter cleaning in a way that’s not going to put anybody in danger. That’s why I wrote this post asking for ideas of how to do that. I have run out of ideas. No customer is going to want me to remove one of their tiles to tie off to a wood rafter underneath. No customer is going to want me to screw an anchor into their roof. And, even if I did, I would be putting my employees at risk while they are doing that and before they are tied off.

I just thought that someone on this forum might have an awesome idea, and I would have that “Ah-Ha” moment.

Right now I’m trying to figure out if I could get some kind of a VAC system we could use from the ground that would actually work, and that I could afford to put in all 4 of our vehicles. That’s the only plausible idea I have at the moment. Do you have any others?

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Can you give a few examples of the systems you’re referring to?

Why not pound a length of rebar into the ground opposite side of where you are working and tie off a long rope over the roof to the worker with a harness and brake system?

Use ladder arms/stand off to rest ladder weight on roof. Stabalizes and keeps ladder from leaning on eaves.

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Several companies come to mind.

WCR has a system, just to name three possible sources. You can also purchase just the pole systems and use your own VAC.

Things to consider:

  1. The motor of the VAC must be able to develop HIGH suction (a three head motor is best)
  2. Your hose assembly should be at least 3"- 4" dia. for best performance
  3. Wet or Dry - Dry leafs vac easier than wet leafs

As mentioned earlier, these systems are no cheap (to buy or build) and you will only get the results you desire by careful review.

It goes without saying that these do not overcome GUTTER Guards. That is a different problem.

How would I know the rebar wouldn’t be pulled out of the ground in case of a fall? I also wonder if a customer is going to want us to pound rebar into his yard, leaving a hole. Also, on the sides of a house, there is no ground to pound into - it is just cement. Just wondering out loud.

i would not trust that either

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Creative but the loaded weight would be coming directly up pulling the rebar out of the ground. Simple Thing is counterweights on the other side of the home, connect to the counter weights. This is within safety standards too.

This eliminates any need to remove roof tile or nail anchor in shingles.

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A vacuum system to perform this would need to have some severe suction especially for one two or even three story house reaching up to those levels. They do make vac systems out there but they’re not realistic because the lack of power. No matter how you look at it you will be forced to use a ladder to some degree ,either go up and flush downspout to apply enough water down it Force. Another issue of performing it only from the ground is you can’t see what debris is insude or even see if you removed it all. Gutters here have supports every 5 feet, any system from the ground would have a hard time cleaning underneath those.