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Help!

Diwrnach

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Bit of advice, I have a gutter to clear tomorrow afternoon, I was stupid and didn't ask enough questions on the phone, but I drove past it earlier as it is just round the corner and the gutter is quite high above a garage so I don't think I can physically get to it.

Now I do have a gutter vacuum which WILL reach, it has come with some attachments, a hook type thing, and one with a fork on the end (like you eat your dinner with) but I have not really tried much to get REALLY blocked sods out with it, is it possible? this gutter is overgrown like I have never seen, I am worried it will be too tough to suck out, maybe try and hook it out with the attachment?

Any ideas very welcome, thanks.

 
It might be hard to do it. Overgrown sods are tough so you might need to do a ' runner' on this one. Let us know how you get on.

 
I'm fairly new to the business so usually when I get a overgrown bit I hop up the ladder and grab it out.

Are they impossible to remove with the vac? even if I spent ages on it?

 
Do you have a pic so I can see the front of the house maybe taken from google maps

Bit of advice, I have a gutter to clear tomorrow afternoon, I was stupid and didn't ask enough questions on the phone, but I drove past it earlier as it is just round the corner and the gutter is quite high above a garage so I don't think I can physically get to it.
Now I do have a gutter vacuum which WILL reach, it has come with some attachments, a hook type thing, and one with a fork on the end (like you eat your dinner with) but I have not really tried much to get REALLY blocked sods out with it, is it possible? this gutter is overgrown like I have never seen, I am worried it will be too tough to suck out, maybe try and hook it out with the attachment?

Any ideas very welcome, thanks.
 
Also the garage roof is really low in comparison to the gutter, I would have to climb onto the garage roof, then put the ladder on the garage roof itself to get to it.

I don't do standing on roofs, I lift a lot of weights, I am quite big, I weigh over 20 stone....

 
I don't have a gutter vac, as I think it would take a long time to pay for its self. However, I reach hard to get to guttering by going up at the corner of the building with a stand off fitted and dragging the debris back towards me with a harris pole fitted with a single metal prong.

I did one not so long ago that had a glass roof in front of it. The ladder angle had to be wide but I parked the van on the drive, placing the ladder against the tyre.

I have often turned up to awkward jobs and with a little thought, have always completed them.

 
So are really overgrown gutters pretty much impossible with the vac on its own?

The reason I have always removed them by hand before is because it is quicker, just wasn't sure if it was 100% impossible with a vac only.

 
I do have a pressure washer with a long reach pole and a U bend attachment for downpipes, wonder if I could use that and blast them out?

 
You could try with a vac and hooks etc first but all depends if the gap between the tiles is big enough to be able to get the sods out. My last resort if I could not set my gutter clearing ladder safely would try to use a telescopic lance to blast it out. Doing this though makes a hell of a mess and you also need to be mindful that the pressure could damage joints etc whilst doing so.

Sounds a right pain in the **** job to do and a big lesson learnt best not to give price over the phone without seeing the job first.

Good luck & let us know how you get on:thumbsup:

So are really overgrown gutters pretty much impossible with the vac on its own?
The reason I have always removed them by hand before is because it is quicker, just wasn't sure if it was 100% impossible with a vac only.
 
Good luck with it mate.

We have all I expect, given a price and got it wrong! Sometimes even after standing there looking at it. /emoticons/smile.png

 
Can't you just take the gutter/down pipe off and clean it on the floor? It'd take minutes. I've changed plenty of guttering when building and its pretty easy, unless cast iron. Whack a bubble on it when you put it back up innit.

 
Yes indeed as I did a pig of job last week on a large house only to find the gap between the tiles was very small. Had not been cleared for years so was rammed packed to the top of the gutters with compacted tile grit etc.

Lucky for me their was good access all round so used my gutter ladder setup and sucked the crud out with a thin crevice nozzle. The hard bit was clearing the part over a 5m conservatory so had to attach the vac nozzle to a wfp then whilst up me ladder to suck that clear too from one side as could not get my ladder safely set to clear half of it from the other side.

There was no way that job could have been done properly from the ground with guttervac poles so just goes to show how important it is to use the right kit when working from ladders to do the job as safely as you can.

That job took a lot longer than I expected to do but lucky for me I charged enough to cover the job so I did not end up out of pocket.

Good luck with it mate.
We have all I expect, given a price and got it wrong! Sometimes even after standing there looking at it. /emoticons/smile.png
 
Yes you can but you need good ladder access to all the brackets, joints etc otherwise your screwed. Also if old gutters you could end up replacing the joints too as they can leak after refitting. Not only that taking down guttering and refitting should really be a two man job whereas most work on their own.

Safest way is to work from scaffolding but I cant see many paying out that amount of money just to have their gutters cleaned out

Can't you just take the gutter/down pipe off and clean it on the floor? It'd take minutes. I've changed plenty of guttering when building and its pretty easy, unless cast iron. Whack a bubble on it when you put it back up innit.
 
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Well I didn't need to worry, it did take a bit longer than I expected, but I got the joints on my gutter pole really tight (put some insulation tape around the tapered part of the pole joint) and used the hooky bit to work my way under the sod and once I got it going it came out fairly easy.

happy days!

 
Yep lesson learnt, its difficult though because if the job is a long way off hardly worth the diesel to just take a look then go back again later to do the work.

 

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