Gutter cleaning

How To Clean Your Gutters

Part of your yearly home maintenance plan should include inspection and cleaning of your gutter system. It is recommended by most gutter experts that you clean your gutters at least twice a year. Once in the fall and again in the spring. This will allow you to catch issues before they turn into a bigger problem. Not removing the sticks and leaves that can build up in gutters may lead to blockages, overflows, and costly damage to your home. Even when you have gutter protection in place it is important to make sure no debris is collecting over your the top of your gutter guards.

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Tools Required

  • A large tarp for each side of your home with gutters present
  • A ladder
  • Gloves
  • Garden hose
  • Spray nozzle

Optional Tools

Standoff stabilizer

Using a standoff stabilizer on your ladder will not only give the ladder more stability, but it will also keep the ladder from damaging your gutters!

Garden trowel or similar

If you are cleaning regularly you should be able to get most of the gunk out with your hands. However, for tougher/older clogs something like a garden trowel will come in handy.

How to Clean Your Gutters

Step 1

Start out by laying down one of your large tarps under the gutter run you plan on cleaning. This will help protect your lawn while giving you a place to safely drop the gutter gunk as it is removed.

Laying out tarps

Step 2

Now set the ladder where you want to begin. A Pro tip is to start at the downspout and work your way towards an endcap or corner. This way when you get to step 4 you don’t need to move the ladder an extra time. If using stabilizers then the stabilizer bars should be resting on the roof.

Setting a ladder

Step 3

Remove any sticks or leaves that have collected on top of the gutter run or gutter protection. This will give you a better look at the state of your interior gutters. Now you want to remove anything that doesn’t belong. Leaves, dirt, nests, twigs, and acorns are common finds in Michigan gutters.

Cleaning Gutters

Step 4

Once you have removed all the debris from a particular gutter run it is time to bring out the hose! Each gutter run you clear will have a slight pitch to it, this angling will ensure water runs toward the downspout of choice. You are going to use your hose, without the spray nozzle, to let the water run down the full length of the gutter runs. This will clear any small particles you missed and make sure that there are no blockages in the downspout.

Running water through gutters

Step 5

If you do discover that one of your downspouts is blocked then it is time to get the spray nozzle. Aim your spray nozzle directly into your downspout and pull the trigger. This should do the trick of freeing up any leaves or sticks that have become lodged in your downspout.

Spray nozzle cleaning gutters

Avoide the dangers of cleaning your gutters with gutter protection!

Pro is a gutter contractor with more than 16 years of experience with installing beautiful and affordable gutters and gutter protection on homes all over Michigan. We regularly install our gutter protection systems for residents all over Metro Detroit. This saves you the hassle of having to clean your gutters by hand, risking injury. From Ann Arbor all the way up to Flint, we have proven ourselves as the best local gutter installers. We provide free gutter inspections prior to all estimates and a free yearly inspection on every project we complete.

When you are ready to discover the many benefits of our gutter systems please call us at 888-PRO-1998 (888-776-1998) or get a FREE no-pressure gutter estimate.

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