Critical Factors to Determine Gutter Cleaning Prices

Cleaning your gutters regularly is an essential home maintenance task. If your gutter system is not working correctly, rainwater can cause many issues for your home that are often expensive and massive headaches. Preventative action is a more cost-effective approach.

What is the Cost of Gutter Cleaning?

Is there such a thing as an average or typical home improvement project? The sales staff at Metro City Roofing is often asked, “What does it cost to clean my gutters?”

Every home is different in square feet, number of gutters, number of stories, and much more. No matter where you live and what type of house you have, rain gutters and downspouts are designed to do the same purpose and have common issues, including clogs, leaks, sagging, and pests.

The most common factor that determines the cost of any gutter project is the size of your house. The average home will have somewhere between 125 to 300 linear feet of gutters. A multi-story house will cost more due to the added complexity and increased risk of injury, and difficulty accessing the home’s gutters.

For gutter replacement, there is a wide range of options from premium brands such as LeafGuard and Gutter Helmet, where you can expect to pay an average price of $30.00 per linear foot and above. On average, we suggest planning an average price of $9.00 per linear foot, which includes both gutters and downspouts.

Gutter cleaning pricing will start at $250.00 but can increase due to the size of the house (i.e., linear feet of gutters and number of downspouts, roof’s pitch (steepness), 1-story, or multi-story home, and the amount of debris needing to be removed.

9 Factors that Determine Gutter Cleaning Prices

9 different factors will determine the amount we charge for professional gutter cleaning services:

1. Square footage – The actual size of your home is essentially the primary factor in the price of your gutter cleaning. To no surprise, a larger home will take more time to clean and will appropriately cost more.
2. House style – We will need to understand whether your house is a one-story, two-story, or higher. A two- or three-story home will cost more than a single-story home as cleaning requires additional time and ladder and rope skillset.
3. Pitch of the roof – The pitch or steepness is a crucial factor in determining the price of gutter cleaning. The combination of pitch and the number of stories is essential to understand. A lesser pitched or angled roof is safer for most professionals to walk on than a roof that requires harnesses and ropes to complete the gutter cleaning or replacement.
4. Roofing material – The type of roofing material can also play a role in the price quoted for gutter cleaning. Certain roofing materials are relatively easy to walk on, such as asphalt composition shingles. Other roofing materials such as wood shakes or wood shingles, tiles (ceramic, concrete, or slate) are harder to walk on without damaging the roof safely. An asphalt shingle roof will be priced less than one of these other roofing material types.
5. De-icing cables – De-icing cables are typically installed on roofs with a history of ice damming. These heating cables are clipped to a shingle roof and the gutters. If we are replacing gutters, re-installing the de-icing cables can be quite time-consuming and adds to the price. 
6. Gutter screens – Depending on whether your home has nearby trees, you may need gutter screens to ensure clean gutters. To complete your gutter cleaning, the screens will need to be detached and reset. 
7. Underground drains – Testing and cleaning an underground drain is frequently more time-consuming than a clogged downspout that lays on the ground and will be a factor in the gutter cleaning price.
8. Repairs – We often make necessary gutter repairs at the same time as gutter cleaning. Repairs may include sealing the gutter seams, patches, or tightening or reattaching any brackets that have come loose or separated from the house. These repairs will increase the price of gutter cleaning.
9. Amount of debris – A gutter that has been ignored for a prolonged period will likely have more debris and blockage than a house with regular gutter cleaning maintenance. Technicians that spend additional time to remove excess waste or blockage will increase the amount of time necessary to clean the gutters and downspouts correctly and may increase the overall price.

To determine the price for your gutter cleaning, Metro City Roofing will consider each of these factors and present a reasonable price. A professional gutter cleaner should be able to provide a quote in advance before doing the work. Having your gutters cleaned on a regular maintenance schedule will be more cost-effective in the short-term and long-term to avoid a flooded basement, structural damage, water pooling your landscaping, or other issues that result from a faulty gutter system.

When searching for a professional gutter cleaning services company, we recommend inquiring whether they carry General Liability and Worker’s Compensation insurance to protect both themselves and their employees and the customer. A handyman may save money but will likely not have the essential insurance. At Metro City Roofing, we are fully licensed and insured and will do an amazing job for your Denver gutter cleaning and professional gutter cleaning across the Front Range.

Essential Gutter Cleaning Tools

Cleaning your gutters should be done every six months to a year. They should also be checked after a big storm. Most homeowners dread this task, but it is the single most crucial step in maintaining gutters.

The following are essential tools used to clean your gutters:

• Gloves
• Trowel
• Trash bags
• Garden hose with a pressure nozzle
• Dust mask to protect against mold spores in the debris

Professional gutter cleaning services can handle this job for you. Besides having someone else do the dirty work, professionals can also inspect your gutters to make sure your fasteners are tight, check for dry rot on your fascia, ensure the gutters are angled correctly towards your downspouts, and look for corrosion or other potential trouble spots. Although one can save money cleaning gutters as a do-it-yourself (DIY) project, working with a licensed contractor can protect you from being liable for any on-the-job injuries such as falling off a ladder.

Why Do Gutters Need to Be Cleaned?

Clogging

Debris, including leaves, pine needles, and tree branches, may land on your roof and likely into your gutters, following some wind or rain. These materials will eventually decompose and become a solid material affixed inside your gutters. Granules from asphalt shingle roofs can also clog your gutters following a hailstorm or windstorm. You may find an unwanted critter nest in your gutters, as they make a great home, sheltered from the wind. Any combination of these unwanted items will cause gutter problems for your drainage system.

Clogs can cause harm in three ways:

• Clogged gutters can prevent rainwater from getting to the downspout. This backup can damage fascia, shingles, soffits, and the roof. In addition to water damage, it can promote the growth of mold.
• Clogs can turn into solid bridges that allow rainwater to spill over and soak your foundation. This can weaken the foundation, erode the ground around your foundation (a critical issue, especially if you live on a hill), and contribute to mold growth in your basement, crawlspace, and walls.
• During dry weather, debris in your gutters poses a severe fire hazard.

Clogs can be reduced by routinely cleaning gutters. If you have many trees near your house, you should inspect them twice per year and even every four months and clean them. If your house has no trees nearby or a new home with trees not yet tall enough to have falling debris enter your gutters, you may inspect your gutters every six months or every year. You should always inspect them after a big storm. Gutter guards help reduce clogs by blocking large debris.

Leaking

Many factors can cause leaks in your gutters. Corrosion over time and falling branches are the most likely natural factors to cause leaks in your gutters. Then, there are the mechanical factors of poor installation at the seams or damage caused by a sharp tool. We recommend repairing any noticeable leaks quickly to avoid long-term damage to your foundation or walls.

Leaks are relatively easy to fix. A tube of roofing cement, a plastic scraper, a wide plastic putty knife, a stiff wire brush, and a patch of metal made of the same material as your gutters are often needed. You may also need a small pair of tin snips if rust has spread beyond the hole.

• Clean out any debris build up with the putty knife. You can also get a gutter scoop.
• Using the wire brush, scrub the area around the leak until it is clean.
• If there is any rust around the hole, cut it away with the tin snips.
• Apply the roofing cement around the hole, feathering it out to flatten any steep parts.
• Bend the metal patch to fit the gutter and press it in, sealing the edges with the roofing cement. Remember to feather the edges to allow the water to flow away smoothly.
• The patch must be made of the same material as the gutter because metals can react with one another (known as galvanic corrosion). This is what happens when one metal begins eating away at the other, thanks to physical contact and the presence of an electrolyte, such as rain, dew, condensation.
• Reseal end caps

Sagging

When gutters sag, rainwater pools in a specific area of the gutter length. We have seen customers attempt to repair this sag by drilling a hole to let the water drain. Unfortunately, this defeats the gutter’s purpose, which is to intentionally route water from the roof and away from your home.

Gutters sag is usually due to:

• Failure of the supports: The fasteners can back out of the wood, or the wood deteriorates and becomes too soft to hold the hardware. Also, the supports can be spaced too far apart to support a full gutter properly.
• Softened/aged wood: A wooden dowel can be inserted firmly into the hole used by the fastener, and the fastener can then be mounted to the new wood. If the wood (usually the fascia) is too soft, it’s time to replace it.
• If the fasteners have backed out of the wood, tighten them or replace them with slightly larger fasteners. Wood expands and contracts through cycles of dryness and moisture, so this is not unusual. If the fasteners are OK, you may need to install more hangers to prop up the sagging section. It’s also possible that some hangers are damaged. 

Pests

Uncovered gutters are attractive to pests looking for food or setting up house. Built-up debris provides shelter and camouflage that are so desirable in the wild.

Squirrels find gutters to be a veritable hardware store when it comes to building nests, and if no suitable trees are nearby, a gutter will do just fine.

Mice and rats don’t hibernate, but they look for winter nests to protect themselves from the elements. Like the squirrels, they find gutters very attractive for this purpose.

Spiders are often attracted to the darkness and moisture of the gutters. Other insects that move into the debris are often an excellent food source for spiders. If your gutters are clogged, rainwater won’t wash away any debris, including unwanted pests, even from a severe storm.

Ants will establish their colonies in gutters. They might not find food there, but they will find a treasure trove of food inside your house.

Having pests in your gutters sometimes means that you won’t notice they’re there until the damage has happened. Insects can chew through wood that has rotted from excessive moisture, and rodents are notorious for finding ways into your home. The best and most affordable way to deal with pests is through prevention: Keeping your gutters clean and installing gutter guards is your best bet.