house roof gutter cleaning

realspeed

realspeed

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Last year we had a company do gutter cleaning and they tried to pressure sell me a roof cleaning service for £400.
Obviously I didn't accept but they tried to change my mind and I don't want that again. To be fair to do the gutters was around the £100 mark or a bit under.
So been spending a bit of money again and got one of these or I should say ordered one. Now I won't have to have to stay in for first a gutter survey and then a quote, finally a day booked to do the job.
With this I should be able to clean my roof gutters more than once a year bearing in mind the 4 huge oak trees in my garden shedding leaves .


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDe9XDnoPZ4&t=9s
 
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We also have a row of deciduous trees quite near & they're a pain in the ass from Oct - Dec.
I find the local magpies, jackdaws etc do a reasonable job of emptying the gutters, but I do have to sweep up regularly.
A couple of years ago a local odd jobber charged me £30 to do it.

We have a 6 mtr conservatory along the rear (which was already here when we bought the house) which has a channel/gutter running alongside the length against the building (stupid design)
I obviously don't want to be climbing onto the glass roof to clear out leaves, moss etc. so bought a cheap set of drain-rods, which were only about £12, to clear the channel. :cool:
 
How much is one of those? I've bought long poles with brushes and they're useless.
 
I fitted my gutters with leaf guards ( available from Screwfix) . Our house is surrounded by giant trees so I didn't expect them to work but gave them a try anyway. Surprise,surprise they really work - they stop the leaves falling into the gutter & forming a soggy mass - instead they collect on top of the leaf guard - first fairly light wind blows them away.
 
srichards said:
How much is one of those? I've bought long poles with brushes and they're useless.
Click to expand...


Have a look here and scroll to the bottom. for price of packages . I went for the 4 pole one including VAT, free p/p was £464.44. May get the camera and monitor later if needed .Want it mainly for back of my house. Showing old conservatory

Link below photos




new conservatory new above dwarf wall not even blinds ordered when I took this photo



http://www.guttercleaningmachines.c...sxhAX_wymdX-J8UEYGJOhWpaWLA5kjAZe8aAoPE8P8HAQ


Note some adverts still give wrong wattage motor the new ones are this as per link
  • Commercial Grade 1600 Watt Motor
 
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Update

People from Skyvac just rung, seems the wrong motor was on the last consignment from Italy, so won't be getting it until next week now.
I said I was not over happy with the way they run their business selling goods they do not have in stock. I said I was going to order another pole but they said they would put an extra pole cost £42 in for free as compensation .

This is what I am after

http://www.guttercleaningmachines.co...Ze8aAoPE8P8HAQ

Just seen a briliant idea to inspect the gutter

how it works

take a small compact camera that takes videos and a small gorilla grip as shown below



screw grip to camera



put on pole (simulated gutter vacuum pole) as below



Or tape cable tie to side of pole

then secure with tape or cable ties. Switch camera to video mode and offer up to gutter. That grip will allow one to angle the camera as desired.

What a brainwave, far cheaper than the nearly £500 for remote camera and view that offered with this equipment
 
Looking forward to hear how you get on. It sounds interesting, but I must admit I'm a little skeptical as to how well it works compared to climbing up there and emptying it as the stuff seems rather heavy and compact at times.

So I can't wait for you to get it :)
 
I agree ^ .

I just go up the ladder with a garden trowel and get the worst of the crud out, then run a hosepipe into the gutters to flush the rest down the downpipe. Not exactly high tech but a bl**dy sight cheaper than a £400 gadget.
 
I also have a conservatory got get over apart from not liking heights on a ladder that may slip.. At a previous address a neighbour wanted to clean an upstairs window on the outside. the ladder slipped and he put his hand through the glass and all but severed his hand ( cut most of his wrist in two bar a bit ). I saw it happen and my car was in my drive so rushed him to hospital. the DRs said he would have died after a few minuites because of blood loss. The did an 8 hour operation with blood transfusion and save his life, saved his hand partially but he was unable to use it fully.

I would rather work from ground level and be able to clean the gutter and over the conservatory without overstretching. The gutter in the first picture ( post 6) is around 20 ft + from ground level.

At the age of 72 almost climbing up a ladder is not my first wish
 
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realspeed said:
I also have a conservatory got get over apart from not liking heights on a ladder that may slip.. At a previous address a neighbour wanted to clean an upstairs window on the outside. the ladder slipped and he put his hand through the glass and all but severed his hand ( cut most of his wrist in two bar a bit ). I saw it happen and my car was in my drive so rushed him to hospital. the DRs said he would have died after a few minuites because of blood loss. The did an 8 hour operation with blood transfusion and save his life, saved his hand partially but he was unable to use it fully.

I would rather work from ground level and be able to clean the gutter and over the conservatory without overstretching. The gutter in the first picture ( post 6) is around 20 ft + from ground level.

At the age of 72 almost climbing up a ladder is not my first wish
Click to expand...

You should have added - So There.

A sound idea this machine and as it happens I saw one being used - I enqired at the cost of the service 4 bed detached pent roof so gutter span at front and rear along with a smaller section at the front - 250 all in and the chap does about 45 houses in the area every year half of his customers are older folk who would not considder going up a ladder themselves.

Could be a new income stream!
 
Just had ours cleaned for the first time since we moved in last year. Not much in the way of leaves, just lots of moss, which is coming from the roof. Filled about one bucket with moss from gutters and about four buckets from moss on the flat room over the utility room.
 
used the skyvac this morning, wow and wow again, got half one of those big plastic bags full of leaves and sludge out of the gutters. The power of the machine is amazing. I did wonder how much suction at the nozzle end but need not have done, there was so much it could pull a carpet up.

So much safer working from ground level, well worth the cost of the machine
 
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I wonder what the suction loss would be from a standard Vacuum (something like a decent AquaVac) with specially modified tubes (3 x 6ft tight fitting sections) and a swan neck end fitting. I made a smaller attachment for fine vacuuming (inside computer and valeting the car) and the fine 1cm end nozzle is really good and controllable.
 
Andy
This ia a commercial machine designed for roof gutters an " AcuaVac" just would not be powerful enough. Although this Skyvac only has a 1600 w motor it is what size fan it drives that counts. I have to say even i did not think it had such suction power, A couple of times I even had to switch the machine off as it stuck to the gutter with suction.

I have to be honest and say buying it was a bit of a punt never having used one before. Last time I had someone with a bigger machine do the job and I was impressed to say the least. His machine would go up to 4 stories high on a house, but too big for what I wanted .This Atom version does what it says on the tin and does it well.
Ok it is expensive against using a ladder and trowel but it get to where they can't and so much operater safe. Skyvac say they give free demos but not tried so can't say but would recommend if thinking of getting one or even hiring one.
 
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