Blocked downpipe, no ladder.

So, got a call earlier from a chap who works for something beaty, I dunno forget now, but one of their things is they don't like anyone going up a ladder, they apparently he was telling me even have special tools for changing light bulbs from the ground?

Anyway he wants his gutters hovering, but he thinks one of the downpipes is blocked, and he doesn't;t want ladders used.

How do I do this from the ground? so far have two ideas, first get my pressure washer, with the gutter attachment and try and blast it down the pipe, the second is maybe try and feed a hose up from the bottom and try and push it out the top?

Other than that kind of out of ideas, normally I would just hop up and dismantle it, or pull it out from above.

Any ideas? thinking old @Smurf might have a plan?

Yep charge arsehole tax /emoticons/biggrin.png

A lot of blockages can be sucked out with a gutter vac on full power. Just make sure you get the end well positioned in the top of the down pipe. That is of course if you have a vac.

Otherwise…

Assuming the blockage is at the top, drain snake up from the bottom and push it out. If you have drain hose for your pressure washer you can go up from the bottom with that, but be prepared to get wet from the fountain at the top!

Maybe rig something up to pour a bottle of strong drain cleaner down the top.

beaty something you say? could be hes with balfour beaty the railway mob

well hes sold his soul to the devil- a H&S nonce , you want to tell him that , see how that goes down. you know that its going to need a ladder and so does he ,its a try on. charge high too, money up front

Hire a cherry picker ;-)

Yep,stick on the arsehole tax, and tell him that the gutters were fitted with a ladder in the first place, and the most efficient way to sort the problem out is with a ladder, unless he would like to sort out a cherry picker but thats a bit overkill for a 5 minute job.

beaty something you say? could be hes with balfour beaty the railway mob
well hes sold his soul to the devil- a H&S nonce , you want to tell him that , see how that goes down. you know that its going to need a ladder and so does he ,its a try on. charge high too, money up front

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That's the one, balfour beaty.

Gutter snake thingy for pressure washer sounds a decent idea.

I do have a gutter vac as well, so will try that first.

Charge them for a gutter survey just to take a look first then do a risk assessment before quoting a price. Well that's what I would do anyway. Once you know what you are dealing with then you can decide the best method to use and don't rule out a cherry picker.

You'll have a job to get your money off them for a start, so get a deposit at least.

Their H&S is amongst the most ridiculous out there. Stepladders are banned on their building sites. (They are a large building contractors not just railways).

Tell them to put scaffolding up if they want, or you can do it the normal way, ladders in other words

Tell them you need a cherry picker and a driver with ipaf/pasma certificate, they can foot the bill for that, also get at least 50% of the money upfront and demand 30 day terms with a £40 charge for any resubmitted invoice.

You need to find out first if if it's a viable option /emoticons/biggrin.png

Tell them you need a cherry picker and a driver with ipaf/pasma certificate, they can foot the bill for that, also get at least 50% of the money upfront and demand 30 day terms with a £40 charge for any resubmitted invoice.

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Funny enough I cleared 3 blocked downspuots and bends on this one today aswell as all the guttering without using ladders.

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You can't see it but there is a downspout there also on this one.

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After clearing the gutter section first and sucking out the top of the downspouts I then did a water test but found all 3 downspout bends still blocked. So I then went to plan "B" as you do

View attachment 3273

View attachment 3274

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As wagga would say job done :laugh:

With a cone nozzle fitted to a garden hosepipe taped to a pole I just stuck it in the downspout. I left the water running full pelt then also used suction which worked a treat on those. You will soon find out if it works or not as the water will stop overflowing from the guttering and you then get a really good flow coming out at the bottom of the downpipe. /emoticons/wink.png

If it hadn't worked then I would have had to go to plan "c"

Set up my pressure washers and blasted the fookers clear /emoticons/biggrin.png

Well how did you get on with the quote @Diwrnach ?

So, got a call earlier from a chap who works for something beaty, I dunno forget now, but one of their things is they don't like anyone going up a ladder, they apparently he was telling me even have special tools for changing light bulbs from the ground?
Anyway he wants his gutters hovering, but he thinks one of the downpipes is blocked, and he doesn't;t want ladders used.

How do I do this from the ground? so far have two ideas, first get my pressure washer, with the gutter attachment and try and blast it down the pipe, the second is maybe try and feed a hose up from the bottom and try and push it out the top?

Other than that kind of out of ideas, normally I would just hop up and dismantle it, or pull it out from above.

Any ideas? thinking old @Smurf might have a plan?

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Thanks for the replys, think I will go with hose on top, vac on bottom if vac won't clear it from the top, then as you say smurf get the pressure washer out and blast it out, I have a gutter U bend for my long reach pressure washing pole.

If that doesn't work I have no idea lol

Not gone out yet mate, got to go tomorrow evening.

Not in the dark I hope /emoticons/biggrin.png

Tell them to put scaffolding up if they want

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That'll be 18 grand then :laugh: