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Gutter cleaning.

Eddie dragon

Active member
Messages
374
Location
Oxford
Lost a few quotes recently as customers wonted guttering cleaning out then full clean g. S. F Windows.

I don't do Gutter cleaning as I set out wfp with no interest in using ladder higher than first floor an only for access to balconies and flat roofs. So that's all I'm insured to first floor.

Seen threads an ads for vacs and cameras but wondered if they are actually any good. Especially if used just from the ground?

Just thinking if I should start to offer add on work or just keep pushing the window cleaning.

 
I use a gutter vac on the higher buildings, 3 floors and higher, prefer to ladder 1st floor and use gutter tools. They aren't very good on full gutters, especially those that have jungles growing out of them, you need to buy an agitation tool to loosen this, and that is very hard work. What I would say is if you are going to do it the first thing you need to buy is a camera to see what's in them before you quote. If they are bad show the customer how bad they are, you should be able to charge a lot more. If they're fairly clean then make sure you get the business.

 
Do some research on how to use one effectively, if you have enough windows don't bother but we find it pays 2 to 3 times per hour what you can earn cleaning glass and is a nice add on to take away the manotiny of always doing windows , guttervacs wont do everything but it's very rare occasions that we ever get a ladder off it's all down to doing a though site survey before quoting and knowing what you are doing that only comes with experience, there is a lot of useful info on utube showing how to do it , start with smaller houses then as you get more experience do bigger jobs , we have been doing it about 10 years or so now and still learning , we do thousands of meters per year 2,3,4 storeys and rarely have a problem . Get a decent camera do a survey first then do a further one when you have finished this always impresses a customer to show how bad they were and what they look like after you have finished . I found this to be very effective with commercial work and have revived a lot of referrals because of it . Don't be put off by negative comments by people who don't do the job or have little knowledge of the subject , you can occasionally get caught out but you learn from this and gain experience and then price accordingly , very few people can do it themselves.

 
I personally find it inconceivable that you can be in this business without ladders, but that's just me.

If you don't want to use ladders then don't, but don't be dismayed when you loose a potential job cause you can't do it effectively.

I have had gutter vacs but found them to be far too slow to use and a lot more effort than just getting up a ladder.

Anyhow, just my opinion.

 
I use a combination of both so don't bother with camera.....ladder up for inspection visually.

Get the big stuff that's wedged by hand then run guttervac along for the loose stuff.

Check it all at the end from ladder.

 
I hate using my vac. I give a mate of mine most of my gutter jobs. I did a house just before Xmas where the gutters were full of oak leaves. An utter ball ache of a job. The inlet and bend kept clogging up and that slowed me right down.

 
We have ladders on all our vans , just don't like having to use them , funny really we find the vac far quicker than ladders and a lot of the jobs we do couldn't be done off them anyway due to height or over other building extensions or on commercial jobs that won't allow ladders to be used on sight , but I suppose it's all down to what you are used to doing everyone to there own

 

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