Between every month and every 5 years depending on how many trees are nearby and whether or not you have gutter guard installed.
Here are the 6 different timeframes you should be cleaning your gutters on. Which one describes your house?
Monthly Cleaning
If you don’t have gutter guard and you have lots of trees right above or directly next to your house that drop a lot of leaves, you could reasonably hop up there every month to remove the leaves. The gutters haven’t become blocked yet as the leaves haven’t begun to compact down, but the gutters can certainly be full. The benefit of cleaning your gutters this often is that the leaves won’t have had time to decay and turn to mud, so the leaf litter will be dry, loosely packed in, and easy to remove. You can simply run around the gutters with a leaf blower and all should be good!
As a business, we don’t carry out very many monthly gutter cleans. People usually wait a few months to get their professional gutter cleaning done in order to get the most bang for their buck!
Every 3-4 months
A very common timeframe that we see for gutter cleaning. Similarly to a monthly clean, if you don’t have gutter guard and you have trees directly above or next to your house that drop a lot of leaves, every 3-4 months is the way to go. By this time, the gutters are usually full and starting to get compacted. 3 months isn’t enough time for leaf matter to start decaying, which is excellent because it means you’ll mostly be removing easy-to-clear dry debris rather than mud. The older leaves in the gutters may have begun to decay but won’t present a challenge to remove. Blockages have quite likely formed though and leaving it longer than 3-4 months can create serious problems such as water back flowing into the house.
Every 6 months
A good timeframe where there are trees near the house but not directly above the house. This is the main deciding factor between a 3 monthly and 6 monthly gutter clean: same number or type of trees, but a bit further away, although the leaves still definitely come your way! You might also have one or two smaller trees above your house that drop a reasonable amount of leaves.
Every year
For houses where the trees are perhaps 10-50m set back from the house, but the leaves still come your way. Or the trees are closer but they’re smaller and don’t drop that many leaves. A yearly clean is a good timeframe to check over the health of your roof as well, especially if you have a tiled roof, so that you can check for broken tiles. If you’re considering hiring someone to take care of your gutter cleaning for you, a good gutter cleaning company will perform a roof health check as well as a gutter clean..
If you have gutter guard, whilst we don’t recommend unscrewing your gutter guard to clean out the mud under there every single year, it can be a good idea to blow/brush off the loose debris sitting on top of your gutter guard each year. This will help prevent the debris from breaking down and the dirt filtering into your gutters. Some people also like to get their gutter hosed out on a yearly basis to prevent their gutter guard from ever needing to be removed and cleaned. This can also be done every six months if there are lots of leaves that always sit on top of the gutter guard
Every 3 years
If your gutters have gutter guard and you have plenty of trees around your house with lots of leaves and twigs that often fall on your roof, this is the time frame for you! If you have gutter guards, does that mean you never have to clean your gutters? Sadly, no. Gutter guard is not a magic solution. They simply make the problem manageable. After about 3 years, enough leaves have broken down and turned into mud to filter through the gutter guard. This mud can build up and completely fill up your gutters. Unscrewing the gutter guard every 3 years, scooping out the mud, and then reattaching the gutter guard, is a good timeframe to keep everything flowing nicely.
Every 5 years
Even if you don’t have trees anywhere near your house, we still recommend a gutter clean every 5 years. Dirt from the air, and especially dirt from roof tiles, eventually builds up in gutters and creates blockages. Moss can also start to grow in the mud up there and often creates major blockages. We see this all the time. It’s also important to keep an eye on any rust or damage that may form in your gutters and roof, and to get on top of repairs as quickly as possible in order to prevent water from going where it shouldn’t and creating damage. Regardless of where you’re located, we highly recommend a gutter clean and roof health check every 5 years when no trees are near your house.
By keeping up with the appropriate gutter cleaning schedule for your house, you can add years to the life of your gutters and it’s an essential aspect of ensuring leaks and flooding are prevented in your home.
Need gutter cleaning advice or someone to take care of your gutter cleaning for you on the Central Coast NSW? Give Shine Bright Property Maintenance a call on 041 114 827 or fill out this contact form here to have the Central Coast’s number 1 gutter cleaners take care of everything for you!
