Are you risking yourself or your property?

Five reasons why you should have the professionals clean your gutters.

Correct equipment for the job

Ladders – a requirement of 1 metre or about 4 rungs above the gutter line is required to safely climb from the ladder to the roof. Correctly anchored to the roof makes this a safety zone when behind it. When we need to work off the ladder, we use equipment to ensure the ladder is safely secured and the right height and angle to work from. Unsteady or incorrectly placed ladders could cause serious injury resulting in an unwanted trip to the hospital.

The Gutter-Vac System – this system allows us to work safely from the roof, negating us having to work from ladders in most cases. Our anchor system provides the safety we require to move about the roof with our hose to vacuum clean gutters.

Protective wear – it may be necessary to hand clean a gutter prior to vacuuming. Cuts to the hands and arms are inevitable in this line of work. Metal roof lines can be jagged, nails can be in the debris being pulled out, sharp sticks, glass or even prickly plants can all be the cause of injury to the hands. Wearing protective gloves limits the exposure to these elements.

Maintaining your property

We use a ladder protector on the gutter to rest our ladder on. This protects the paint and it is less likely that the gutter will dent from the pressure. We also have a ladder that allows us to rest on the wall and access gutters that have gutter guard and the pitch is too steep to access the roof.

We know how to move around a roof that minimises any damage to tiles or roofing iron. It is easy to put a foot wrong and crack tiles or dent roofing sheets. If we deem the roof to be fragile we would use our ground workers system to vacuum the gutters.

Safety for you

Working from a ladder is fraught with danger. Over reaching could cause the ladder to become unstable and a fall could occur. Even if you don’t become unbalanced, climbing up and down a ladder and reaching out are things you might not be used to and you could end up with sore and tired muscles or joint pain.

Fire Hazard

Full gutters are a fire hazard. Dry leaves are obviously fuel for a fire. It is important to clean the gutters every year so the debris does not decompose into a dense compost. If you leave this to build up over a long time it becomes a danger for slow-burn. Embers can stay alight on the inside even though the outside is damp, with no visible flames to alert to the danger. The smouldering can reignite much later when you do not expect it.

Issues arising from having blocked overflowing gutters

If you have had issues with overflowing gutters, the spill might have created a hazardous area, causing mould or algae to build a slippery surface on the ground or walk way. The ground may dry out after you have fixed any gutter issues and seem fine. Then when it next rains you have a slippery surface again. So you need to make sure you attend to the cleaning of these areas after you have cleaned the gutter. Better to clean the gutters and not have overflow issues in the first place.

Is it worth the risk? Protect yourself, your home and save time by contacting Gutter-Vac Tasmania to make an appointment or get a free quote.