Ahh the rain gutters. You love ’em when it rains, hate ’em when it’s time to clean them out. It’s part of that double-edged sword of home ownership. But since your rain gutters serve an essential purpose, you’ve gotta keep them free of gunk that will keep them from doing the job. To that end, here’s how to power clean your gutters!
1. Stuff You’ll Need
To do a proper job cleaning your gutters, you’ll need to gather up the following. Fortunately, you probably already have everything you need.
1. Extension ladder, tall enough to reach the edge of your roof
2. Hand trowel
3. Work gloves (because, you know…eww)
4. Hose with spray attachment
5. Garbage bags for the gunk
6. Rake
7. Patience (because you might need a few hours to do this job)
8. Also, don’t forget to wear good, non-slip shoes.
2. The Chore
Yes, cleaning your gutters is a chore. But since someone’s gotta do it, here are the steps.
- Within good reach of your gutters and donning your gloves, grab your hand trowel and scoop any leaves and other junk out of the gutters. If you’ve got another brave soul on hand, have them hold the garbage bag open while you drop said leaves and junk into it. Watch your aim and be nice. Keep going on this step until you’ve removed all the debris you can get from where you are.
2. As you go along, you’ll need to move the ladder a few feet at a time, until you’ve been over the entire stretch of rain gutter and scooped out everything you can.
3. With your hose sprayer, flush out your gutters with a powerful (but not damaging) spray. Depending on how clogged your gutters were and how much length you’ve got, you might need to start closer to a downspout and work your way back. Or, you might be able to start at the opposite end and “git ‘er done” that way.
4. Grab your rake and clean up any more debris that came down during the flush.
There you go. Nice and clean. But there’s more…
5. Keep Your Day Job
If you truly enjoyed cleaning your rain gutters, you can skip this last tip. But if you’re normal, you should keep reading.
Why not eliminate the need to go through this process? There are some great gutter-protecting products on the market. Varying in design, they’re meant to let the rain flow as it should, while keeping leaves and other debris out.
(You’re welcome!)
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