Question 1

How often should I clean my gutters?

Accepted Answer

Annually if there are trees over the roof or heavy moss on the covering — and in this area moss off the roof, not leaves, is what usually fills them. On an exposed roof with nothing overhanging, every two or three years is honest. Late autumn is the right time, before the wet season rather than after it. Gutter clearing is the cheapest job on any roof and the one that prevents the most expensive ones, which makes it the single best-value thing a homeowner can arrange. What blocks them here is worth knowing, because it changes the schedule. On most local roofs the material filling the gutters is not leaves at all — it is moss shed off the slates and tiles, which breaks off in weather and washes down. Add leaves where there are trees, mortar grit from ridges and chimneys, and the occasional nest, and a gutter clear in spring can be standing full by November. The damage an overflowing gutter does is out of proportion to the cost of preventing it. A curtain of water down a wall for four months saturates the masonry, which means damp showing inside, mortar perishing faster, and — where the water goes behind rather than over — rot in the fascia and the rafter feet directly behind the gutter. That last one turns a ladder job into a joinery job. Doing it properly is more than scooping. The gutter is cleared along its full length, the outlets and downpipe tops are checked and rodded if needed, the gully at the bottom is cleared, and the fall is checked — because a gutter holding water when it is clean has dropped and wants re-hanging rather than cleaning. Debris comes down rather than being flushed into the downpipe, which is how you end up with a clear gutter and a blocked drain. There is a local argument for taking rainwater seriously beyond your own wall. Cheshire East attributes Macclesfield's flooding record — the borough's only designated Flood Risk Area, with 47 internal flooding incidents recorded since 2011 — partly to an ageing network of unmapped, culverted watercourses under the town. A street of houses discharging badly-maintained rainwater into a stressed system is not neutral. On doing it yourself: on a bungalow with firm level ground, reasonably. On a two- or three-storey house, please do not. Ladder falls are the commonest serious home-maintenance accident, and reaching sideways from a ladder at gutter height is precisely the movement that causes them.

Question 2

How often do gutters need clearing?

Accepted Answer

Annually if there are trees over the roof or heavy moss on the covering — and in this area moss off the roof, not leaves, is what usually fills them. On an exposed roof with nothing overhanging, every two or three years is honest. Late autumn is the right time, before the wet season rather than after it. Gutter clearing is the cheapest job on any roof and the one that prevents the most expensive ones, which makes it the single best-value thing a homeowner can arrange. What blocks them here is worth knowing, because it changes the schedule. On most local roofs the material filling the gutters is not leaves at all — it is moss shed off the slates and tiles, which breaks off in weather and washes down. Add leaves where there are trees, mortar grit from ridges and chimneys, and the occasional nest, and a gutter clear in spring can be standing full by November. The damage an overflowing gutter does is out of proportion to the cost of preventing it. A curtain of water down a wall for four months saturates the masonry, which means damp showing inside, mortar perishing faster, and — where the water goes behind rather than over — rot in the fascia and the rafter feet directly behind the gutter. That last one turns a ladder job into a joinery job. Doing it properly is more than scooping. The gutter is cleared along its full length, the outlets and downpipe tops are checked and rodded if needed, the gully at the bottom is cleared, and the fall is checked — because a gutter holding water when it is clean has dropped and wants re-hanging rather than cleaning. Debris comes down rather than being flushed into the downpipe, which is how you end up with a clear gutter and a blocked drain. There is a local argument for taking rainwater seriously beyond your own wall. Cheshire East attributes Macclesfield's flooding record — the borough's only designated Flood Risk Area, with 47 internal flooding incidents recorded since 2011 — partly to an ageing network of unmapped, culverted watercourses under the town. A street of houses discharging badly-maintained rainwater into a stressed system is not neutral. On doing it yourself: on a bungalow with firm level ground, reasonably. On a two- or three-storey house, please do not. Ladder falls are the commonest serious home-maintenance accident, and reaching sideways from a ladder at gutter height is precisely the movement that causes them.

Question 3

When should I clear my gutters?

Accepted Answer

Annually if there are trees over the roof or heavy moss on the covering — and in this area moss off the roof, not leaves, is what usually fills them. On an exposed roof with nothing overhanging, every two or three years is honest. Late autumn is the right time, before the wet season rather than after it. Gutter clearing is the cheapest job on any roof and the one that prevents the most expensive ones, which makes it the single best-value thing a homeowner can arrange. What blocks them here is worth knowing, because it changes the schedule. On most local roofs the material filling the gutters is not leaves at all — it is moss shed off the slates and tiles, which breaks off in weather and washes down. Add leaves where there are trees, mortar grit from ridges and chimneys, and the occasional nest, and a gutter clear in spring can be standing full by November. The damage an overflowing gutter does is out of proportion to the cost of preventing it. A curtain of water down a wall for four months saturates the masonry, which means damp showing inside, mortar perishing faster, and — where the water goes behind rather than over — rot in the fascia and the rafter feet directly behind the gutter. That last one turns a ladder job into a joinery job. Doing it properly is more than scooping. The gutter is cleared along its full length, the outlets and downpipe tops are checked and rodded if needed, the gully at the bottom is cleared, and the fall is checked — because a gutter holding water when it is clean has dropped and wants re-hanging rather than cleaning. Debris comes down rather than being flushed into the downpipe, which is how you end up with a clear gutter and a blocked drain. There is a local argument for taking rainwater seriously beyond your own wall. Cheshire East attributes Macclesfield's flooding record — the borough's only designated Flood Risk Area, with 47 internal flooding incidents recorded since 2011 — partly to an ageing network of unmapped, culverted watercourses under the town. A street of houses discharging badly-maintained rainwater into a stressed system is not neutral. On doing it yourself: on a bungalow with firm level ground, reasonably. On a two- or three-storey house, please do not. Ladder falls are the commonest serious home-maintenance accident, and reaching sideways from a ladder at gutter height is precisely the movement that causes them.

How often should I clean my gutters?

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