My gutter is blocked and rain running down the wall :shock:.
The window cleaner who cleans my upstairs windows usually empties the gutters for a small fee but he has not been around this lockdown.
So I looked for suitable quotes from tradesmen to clean the gutters, the quotes often seem to includes cleaning the facia boards too (I guess to make the visit worthwhile) .
The one man I have heard from so far says he can clean out the gutter now but doesn’t do the facia board till March , I would quite like to have that done too .He has quoted just to clean the gutter
My question is this, don’t the gutters have to be removed to clean the facia boards, if so I don’t see any point in paying to have the gutter cleaned now and then removing them next month to clean the facia boards I would rather have the job done in one go now.
I would have thought so Meg, otherwise where the gutter sits on the facia board would be still dirty underneath?
Are the facia boards white PVC? Would it be noticeable to your eyes if they weren’t cleaned under the gutter?
I appreciate about the wet wall, perhaps you have some container you can shove under the gutter to catch the water, which you’d have to keep emptying every five minutes or so with all the rain (;-))
Hi Pesta my experience of tradesmen has not been good to say the least so I am suspicious around them :twisted:
Yes the gutter which is brown sits on the white facia boards and yes they are noticeable to my offended eyes . I have tried cleaning them myself with a variety of implements with little success . So it seems sensible to have them cleaned while someone is up there
I wouldn’t want to remove the gutter to clean fascias as there’s a good chance of breaking clips, the guttering or losing the seals, it’s likely they’ll just clean out the guttering first, and then clean the fascia,
Meg, it could be, that your down pipe is blocked, caused by the buildup of leaves ,running down into your down pipe, I have a water butt attached to mine, therefore can easily remove part of the down pipe, I have to do it every few months, you will be shocked what builds up in that down pipe.
I have all of my facia cleaned in the spring, he never removes the guttering, my facia is pvc, so it won’t rot ,unlike wood facia.
Ps,if you can’t remove part of your down pipe, you can flush the blockage down with a hose…your outside hose, someone will probably have to do it for you.
Meg, they might remove the gutters to clean, I don’t know, they might also have a supply of clips and guttering on their vans, again I don’t know, I wouldn’t say they’d remove guttering to clean behind unless you specify they do this, and pay accordingly, more likely they will clean out the gutters and wipe down the fascia boards, you would have to see the quote and what they are specifically going to do, not sure why they would come back later to clean the fascia, perhaps they would remove the gutters and need to have some specialist equipment, scaffold tower perhaps.? do you live in a house or bungalow?
Hi Primus I live in a 2 story semi detached house. They advertise they have equipment and an illustration on their website shows numerous cherry pickers .
A similar house near here was done a while ago and they took down the gutters and cleaned the boards .They used just ladders.
It just seemed odd to want to come here twice …
Hi Pauline it’s the gutter that is blocked not the downpipe, there is a blockage halfway along the gutter causing the water to build up near the blockage and overflow. Water is flowing through the downpipe ok.
Unfortunately I have the downpipes for both houses so get all the debris and water from my neighbours roof as well as my own and she never has her gutter cleaned :twisted:.
Hi Meg, I clean my gutters out in spring, although we have no mass of big trees around so they don’t get bunged up like some houses. After the gutters have been cleaned I clean the fascias without removing the gutter by using a cloth on a thin cane to get behind them as far as is visible, before wiping down the rest of the fascia as you normally would.
The great problem with removing the gutters is that they become brittle over time and you could end up with a sizeable bill for replacement for no good reason. What’s that old saying, if it ain’t broke…
Ah,right,that makes sense, to be honest,Meg, some people just want to rip you off! I am lucky ,as my window cleaner does it for me, charges about £10, but, my house is tiny,…one guy quoted me a £100,:shock:
Thanks Barry, he could do both jobs in one go then, not come here twice…
Hi Pauline my window cleaner charges £25 , this chap wants £70 to clear the blockage and gutters.
Hi Primus I know about the gutter guards but think the debris from my neighbours roof would flow underneath them in the rainwater and still get blocked .
I am not convinced there is a good reason for the man to come here twice so will keep looking.
Meg why not ask your neighbour who had theirs done recently who they used and contact details. Also I would talk to your neighbour and say would she like to go halves and get her gutters cleaned at the same time my neighbour and I do that works well although we both have separate/our own downpipes.
I agree with Barry. No need to remove the gutters to clean the facias. You can normally get a cloth between them, I have had them cleaned in the past and they did the whole lot in one go (off ladders), only took one man a couple of hours.
Let him clean out the gutter, then threaten to kick the ladder out from under him if he attempts to descend it before cleaning the facia, but be sure to sound as though you mean it. There will probably be an awkward moment after he has cleaned it and you’ve let him come down the ladder, so prepare yourself for that.
my experience of tradesmen has not been good to say the least 
so I am suspicious around them :twisted:
I clean my gutters out in spring, although we have no mass of big trees around so they don’t get bunged up like some houses. After the gutters have been cleaned I clean the fascias without removing the gutter by using a cloth on a thin cane to get behind them as far as is visible, before wiping down the rest of the fascia as you normally would.