How often should gutters be cleaned? On most South Yorkshire houses, once a year if there are trees over or near the roof, and every two or three years if there are not. That is my answer after around ten years of clearing them. The calendar matters less than what is above your gutter, and two houses on one street can need very different timings.
How often should gutters be cleaned on your house?
Four things decide it, roughly in order of how much they matter.
- Trees. Leaves are the obvious one, but seeds, blossom and twigs all land in the same place. A big tree two gardens away still drops into your gutter on a windy day.
- Moss on the roof. Concrete tiles grow moss, and every heavy shower washes a bit of it down into the gutter. On a mossy roof the gutter refills from above whatever you do, so the roof is the real job.
- Which way the roof faces. The side that gets little sun stays damp longer, grows more moss, and usually has the worse gutter of the two.
- The outlets. A gutter can be half empty and still overflow if the one outlet feeding the downpipe is choked. A single clump in the wrong place does the damage of a full run.
Where none of those apply, a gutter mostly collects grit off the tiles and whatever the birds bring. That builds up slowly, which is why some houses really can go a few years.
How can I tell if my gutters need cleaning from the ground?
You do not need to go up anything. The best test is free and takes five minutes in the next proper downpour.
- Go outside and look along the front edge of each gutter. Water should disappear into it, not come over the lip.
- Look at the bottom of each downpipe. If rain is pouring off the roof but only a trickle comes out at the bottom, something is stopping it higher up.
- Listen. A downpipe that gurgles, or a gutter you can hear dripping in one spot, is telling you where the problem is.
In dry weather, take a photo of the gutter from as far back as you can and zoom in. Anything green poking up over the edge means there is enough soil in there for plants to root. The back of the house is the one people forget, because nobody walks past it.
When is the best time of year to have them cleared?
Late autumn, once the leaves are down. Clear them in October under a big tree and you can be back to square one by the middle of November. That is why more of my gutter clearing reviews on MyBuilder date from December than from any other month.
There is a smaller rush in summer, usually after the first thunderstorm shows someone water pouring off the front of their house. Summer is a fine time if you have no trees nearby, because what is in the gutter then has built up over years rather than weeks.
Winter is fine too, as long as the gutters are not frozen. Ice cannot be vacuumed out, so on a hard frost I rebook for a milder day.
What happens if you leave them too long?
Leaves turn to soil, and soil holds water. A gutter that is full and wet is heavy, and plastic brackets are not made to carry that weight for years. The run starts to sag, the joints open up, and water finds its way over the back of the gutter and onto the fascia board.
That is how a clear becomes a repair. A customer in Wakefield booked me in January 2023 to clear leaves and fix a small join, and plenty of my jobs are booked that way, a clear with a small repair alongside it. Clearing a gutter often shows something small that has worked loose, and it is far cheaper caught then. If yours is already dripping from one spot or pulling away from the wall, have a look at gutter repairs as well.
Do I need a regular contract?
No. I do not sell one, and I would not push you into a yearly visit if your gutters do not need it. You ring when you think they need looking at.
The before and after photos I send when a job is done are the best guide to when the next one is due. If the before shot shows a few leaves, you can leave it longer. If it shows a gutter full to the brim with soil after twelve months, you know yours is a once-a-year house.
What decides the cost?
I price on the property rather than off a list, so there is no set figure here. What moves it is the height of the gutters, whether there is a clear path to the back of the house, whether it is a straight clear or turns into a repair, and how long it has been left. That last one is where regular clearing pays off. A gutter with one season's leaves in it comes out quicker than one packed hard with years of soil, so keeping on top of it keeps each visit smaller.
When to ring someone
If water is coming over the front edge, plants are growing out of the gutter, or you cannot remember when it was last done, it is time. I clear gutters standing on the ground, with the vacuum doing the reaching, so nobody leans a ladder on your gutter or walks on your roof. The details are on the gutter clearing page. If the moss coming off your tiles is what keeps filling them, roof cleaning fixes the cause rather than the symptom.
I work across the area around Mexborough, from Barnsley to Rotherham and Sheffield, and there are more gutter photos on my work page.
Not sure if yours need doing yet? Take a photo from the pavement and WhatsApp it to 07515 154559. I will tell you honestly whether it is worth booking now or can wait another year. The quote costs nothing and I charge no call-out fee.
