Is Gutter cleaning too far off topic for this forum?

I was wondering what all you guys that clean gutters do when they’re frozen? So far I’ve been waiting till they thaw out but that’s because I’m in Napa California and it doesn’t get below freezing for more than a few days in a row.
Sorry if this is too far off topic.

in your case just wait till it warms up. 1 - 2 days with the low around 32 and you’re good to go.

Not your problem they waited so long

2 Likes

I’ve had this happen to me, it sucked. I had to wait. A different time I had to break it up and pull it out. I’d think it’d depend on how much water was in the gutter when the froze.

1 Like

Your options are to wait or try a steam cleaner to unthaw them. I think next year we are going to try out a steamer. We can’t get everyone done before it freezes anymore.

2 Likes

Off topic? Nothing is off topic up in here. Give this thread a couple days and we’ll find something completely off topic to argue about.

6 Likes

I like hearing from fellow west coasters but I was hoping to hear from people from places that have weeks or months of below freezing temperatures. How do they deal with clients that have frozen stuff in their gutters.
Maybe they could recommend something I could try or are their clients out of luck and have to wait until their gutters thaw out?

I like the idea of a steamer to thaw ice. I’ve never heard of doing that. Were you just kidding or were you serious? Because before this year I hadn’t heard of using a gutter vacuum either but I’ve gotten one and can’t live without it.

I really thought Buzz was back

I’m serious. A couple weeks ago there was a fire when it was -20 out. Ice was everywhere, on the ladders and fire engines. The newspaper said they use steam to melt the ice and cleanup. I did some online research and apparently some people clean gutters this way when it is too cold. There are videos on YouTube.

Be careful though. There are pressure washers that use hot water and then there are steam machines. Hot water pressure washers are cheaper but use tons of water. A steam machine will cost $3,000-5,000 but seems worth it.

It would also be easy to get into the ice dam removal business with such a machine. At $500-800 a job, machine will be paid for in a couple days.

1 Like

If money is tight just use a regular garden hose and pump hot water into the gutter.I’ve done this before but i generally wait until the afternoon for the ice to thaw out or if thats not an option wait for the temps to come back up a bit.

1 Like

DING ! DING ! DING !

You win the best idea contest. Thanks. I’ll hook up to the hot water heater and run the hose from there.

1 Like

Just use a flat (firm) scraper and possibly a mallet if you need to. Very easy and fast. Leaves will come out in chunks of ice.

Iowa here. It’s a lot of work to cleN frozen gutters. Sometimes if you can get a scraper underneath, you can just pop up chunks of ice.

Personally, we don’t do it anymore.

If you know it will thaw up in a day or two, just wait. There have been other threads on here in the past about frozen gutters. Search and you’ll find some advice.

We typically dont get any calls thoughout mid winter. People around here seem to have some common sense about cleaning gutters in the winter. We might get a few stragglers and we just tell them we will take care of it when the temps are going to level out a bit. We watch the weather and when we are two days away from a decent day we call up the cust and let them know when we are coming.

That name is dead but my immaturity is immortal

1 Like

just be careful using any type of scraper or tool. you can use one but jut be very gentle. i knew someone that damaged all the gutters on an entire house removing ice. he couldn’t tell they were getting damaged while doing it. but once he was finished and came down off the roof you could tell from the ground looking up that the bottom of the gutters were all wavy and dented. and the homeowner is the one that noticed and pointed it out.

i also know of guys using tools / scrapers and putting holes in the bottom of the gutters. the aluminum is pretty soft (especially when it’s cold it seems easier to puncture)

if your gonna use a tool i would use something plastic if possible. and i would not recommend any type of mallet or hammer it’s too easy to puncture the bottom of the gutter.

i would say the best way is to just use a garden hose and run the water into the gutter and it will melt the ice enough to where you can grab it out in blocks. and cold water will work just fine if you don’t have access to hot. a water heater will drain pretty fast with a garden hose hooked up to it, it’s not like a sink or shower head that doesn’t let much water out.

1 Like

I like this idea. When you say a firm scraper, what do you mean by this? Are you using it as a chisel basically?