Well, we talked about the Looj and all of its pitfalls, and why we don’t recommend them when it’s time to clean your gutters. Today’s market has expanded considerably over the past four years, and now there are more robots available. None of them have impressed us too terribly.

So what do we recommend for our clients? First and foremost, it’s important to clean out your gutters on a regular basis if you intend to do it yourself. The longer you leave them, the harder your job will be when you do get around to it. Usually, we recommend cleaning out your gutters twice a year: spring and autumn. With March upon us and the spring equinox just around the corner, that means you should be thinking about adding this to your To Do List.

However, if you’ve got a lot of trees standing over your gutters, or if you have pine trees, you may need to do it quarterly.

The Old-Fashioned Way

The best way to clean out your gutters is the way most folks do it. Invest in a sturdy, extendable ladder and go around the perimeter of your gutters with a scoop or a trowel and a garden hose. It’s best to start near the downspout, then remove all of the larger branches and twigs. To save your yard and your flower beds, put your debris into a bucket, a heavy-duty bag, or into a plastic tarp.

Once you’ve got all of the larger materials out of the gutters, you can then go to the opposite end of the gutter from the downspout with your hose. Insert a small nozzle onto the end of the hose so that you can get some good, hard pressure when you turn it on. Once it’s going, just wash out the finer debris and let it go flowing into the downspout. If you don’t see water coming out, turn off the water, and go back to cleaning. You’ve got a blockage in there.

For safety reasons, don’t ever try to get up onto the roof and work on cleaning the gutters that way. Use a ladder.

Useful Tools

If you have trouble with getting up onto a ladder, you may find that some of the gutter-cleaning tools on the market are helpful for reaching those high places.

Gutter-cleaning tools, like the Gutter Sense tool , are often paddles attached to telescoping poles. While they’ll prevent you from having to get up on a ladder, they are often slower to use. One customer remarked that it was difficult to pull out thickly-growing maple sprouts, and a job that could have been finished in 20 minutes instead took several hours.

Some gas-powered pressure washers can also be fitted with a gutter-cleaning attachment. You’ll still need to remove large debris from your gutters before you can use it, and they have a tendency to blast leaves and other debris everywhere… right onto your yard.

Hire a Professional

If all else fails, and you don’t have the time or the ability to get up onto a ladder to clean your own gutters, we’ll be happy to come out and clean your gutters for you. Hiring a professional ensures you’ll get the job done right and for a reasonable price.

Call today for pricing information!