Cleaning out your home’s gutters is very important and should be done on a regular basis. However, every year there are many accidents that occur from doing this. In this post, we share some valuable tips to ensure your safety when cleaning out your gutters.

Why clean your gutters?

If rainflow doesn’t flow properly through your home’s gutters and downpipes, costly repairs can add up from rainwater damage in and around your property..

Practice Ladder Safety

Always let someone know when you will be using a ladder to work on your building’s roof or gutters. Use a safe and sturdy ladder, make sure you have a ladder that can reach your gutter without the need to stretch too far. If you have to stretch to get to the gutter you take the risk of losing your footing on the ladder. Also make sure to inspect the ladder for defects, dents or loose parts before climbing. If your ladder is fastened together with screws and bolts, make sure all parts are tightened. When opening up a step ladder, make sure the extension-hinge arms are fully extended and locked in place.

Use A Garden House

Choose one with a pistol-grip trigger spray nozzle. This type of spray nozzle allows you to adjust the water pressure with the use of just one hand, allowing you to still have use of your other hand, and can easily be hung over the gutter top when you need to move the ladder etc.

Get A Gutter Scoop

Scooping out the leafy debris seems to be the best overall method for cleaning out gutters.

An excellent tool for this job is a plastic scooping tool. Stay away from using a metal scooping tool because the bottom of the gutter and seams can be damaged and scratched.

Protect Your Hands

Gloves can help protect hands against dirty, rotting leaf debris that often contains bird or bat droppings full of bacteria. They can also prevent painful cuts from the torn metal shards of an old, ragged gutter. Thick, suede gloves are preferably recommended because cotton gloves can soak up dirty water that exposes skin to bacteria; thin leather gloves aren;t as maneuverable and tend to shrivel up when they dry after use; and rubber gloves can get torn by metal bits in the gutter.

Protect Your Eyes

Industrial glasses/masks are a must because one never knows what might fly out of the downpipes when cleaning gutters. People have experienced rats, birds, frogs, wasps and bees leaving at high speeds once they start removing a clog, and the last thing you’d want to have happen is an eye injury.

Clean Off The Roof

Rake or power wash all debris off the roof first. Otherwise, the next rain will wash all the debris down into the clean gutter, clogging it up again.

Be Mindful Of Power Line Hazards

When cleaning gutters around a power line cable that drops from the power pole to the roof of a building, conduct a visual inspection of the electrical cable where it connects to the roof. If the cable appears to have damage, do not attempt to repair it; instead, call energex to report it and request someone to fix it as soon as possible.If it’s raining and there is an electrical wire problem, do not attempt to clean out the gutters until the wires are fixed; water is a dangerous conductor of electricity.

Gutter Guards

A great preventative tool - they’re designed to keep your gutters clean from debris and will save you less effort when you need to clean them. There are several different gutter guard designs available, make sure you talk with an expert to source one suitable for your home.