It’s easy to think when you’re young and fit that getting up on a ladder to do any job around the home would be easy, BUT…

Ladders can be a dangerous thing.

Sure, the obvious is that you don’t have the ladder on an even surface, but maybe it’s not all that obvious that the surface is uneven.  As you climb the ladder, your weight alone could be enough to make your ladder lose balance, causing you to fall. 

Another safety precaution that is a little less obvious is how you secure your ladder at the top.  Imagine you have your ladder leaning up against the gutter, but you don’t have it secured in any way.  All it takes is a little lean to the left or lean to the right and the ladder will simply slide along the gutter.  Result again is you on the ground.

The last common “danger point” is when people are leaving the ladder to get onto the roof.  What most people do is they will get to one rung from the top and instead of stepping up to that last rung at roof level, they will step up AND over onto the roof.  Combine this with an unsecured ladder on an uneven surface and this is a disaster in the making.

We see people all the time trying to clean their gutters from a ladder.  When you are on a ladder you should always have 3 points of contact – meaning that you are well secured. The very act of cleaning your gutters – without having your ladder safely secured – reduces your point of contact from three down to two, maybe even one. 

It seems so simple doesn’t it? Just grab a ladder and a bucket and jump up and clean your own gutters. But as simple as it may seem, it is also potentially putting yourself at risk of a fall that can so easily be avoided.

Remember, this is not only limited to you climbing up a ladder.  What if you got the teenager down the street to climb the ladder, with a bucket to clean out your gutters?  What if that teenager falls?  Who is going to be liable for the medical expenses and potential damages if they fall?

At Gutter-Vac we pride ourselves on safety.  We are fully safety trained and insured.  So we know how to vacuum clean your gutters effectively and efficiently, with safety as our first priority. 

Don’t risk a fall, give us a call on 1300 654 253.

Birds can cause havoc on a roof, in particular under solar panels.  Under a solar panel, birds have a nice sheltered area to build their nest, lay their eggs and even rare their young. 

The problem with this?

Sure, it might be unsightly if you can see them.  Sure, you might get a build up of bird droppings.  But the big one…. Solar panels have wires to connect them up, to allow them to do their intended purpose.  Birds and wires do not go hand in hand and these seemingly harmless birds can cause expensive damage to your solar panels.

We use specialised bird proofing products to protect and prevent birds (and possums sometimes too!) from getting under your solar panels. 

Because this is a job on the roof, working at heights, this is why our customers come to us because they know we are trained and insured to work at heights and get this job done safely for you.  It is NOT a DIY job to take on, that’s for sure.

Birds can be a problem not just for solar panels but for many properties.  They may be nesting, their droppings and in some cases, simply the noise.  There are many human ways of bird proofing (that does not require the killing of birds!) a property and we work with leading manufacturers of bird proofing products and devices so if you have a bird problem, give us a call and we can help you find and implement a system.

Contact us on 1300 654 253 or visit our website at www.guttervac.com.au

Nasty paths and driveways can not only build up grease, grime and dirt, they can also build up mould.  These build ups are not only unsightly, they can also be unsafe causing a surface to become slippery.

At Gutter-Vac we began offering pressure cleaning many years ago as our customers, in particular our commercial customers, were asking if we could help them out with this job.  I suppose that is the side effect of providing great customer service… customers want to know what else you can do for them as they like doing business with you!

So many customers try and DIY their pressure cleaning by using ‘wand’ type of domestic pressure cleaners, but if you have ever done this, you will know that often it leaves surfaces looking more unsightly than they did with the dirt and grime!  Why?  Because they leave streaks or lines of application.

For large surfaces, we use specialised whirl-a-way applicators so that we can not only remove the grease, grime and dirt with pressure cleaning, but also leaves the surface looking clean with an ‘even’ finish.

So if you have a path, driveway, carpark or flat surface you need cleaned, then give us a call.  We have also cleaned walls and roofs as well, so give us a call on 1300 654 253 for a free quote and we can also advise you on the best application for a surface as well as the investment to have that done.

Do you have a property that has a lichen, moss or mould issue?  On the roof or walls or even on your pathways?

We have been vacuum cleaning gutters for over 20 years now and we see the state of properties up close and we know the lichen, moss and mould are real issues.

Because we work on the roof and this is a safety issue for the general public and our commercial customers, they have been asking us if we could help them out removing this mould, lichen and moss from their properties and in particular from the roof because we can safely work on the roof and at heights.

About 4 years ago we started the process of creating a product that would remove lichen, moss and mould from a property. 

Why did we look to develop our own product?

Because it seemed that products on the market were all chlorine based and not environmentally friendly.  When applying a product to the roof, you must remember that with rainfall, it will wash the product into the gutters – and as long as your gutters are clean to do their intended purpose – this product will then wash through the down pipes and into the waterways out to creeks and the ocean…. Carrying the harmful chlorine based products.

We didn’t want to put more harmful chlorine based products into our waterways so we went to work to find a way that we could remove the stubborn moss, lichen and mould from properties, but one that wouldn’t be harmful to the environment.

And we did it!  We created EnviroClean.

It took a while as we wanted to not only ensure it is environmentally friendly, but that it would also get the job done!  And it does. 

We did extensive testing for over a year because some moss, mould and lichen needs to have EnviroClean applied and then it needs to be left to do its work over a period of time before you see the true results, so we needed to test all sorts of properties, roof types, levels of lichen and different areas of Australia and in different times of the year.

EnviroClean is now available.

You can use it two ways:

1. You can contact your local Gutter-Vac Franchisee who can give you a quote and apply the EnviroClean for you.  We highly recommend this, especially if you are planning to treat a roof with EnviroClean.  Working on a roof with a liquid can be unsafe if you don’t have the correct safety gear.

• You can also order EnviroClean directly from www.guttervacshop.com.au to apply yourself – ideal DIY option for paths and walls of a property.

Come to our website and check out the before and afters to see just what amazing results you can get with EnviroClean…. Without having to use chlorine!

What has been happening in Australia over the summer has been devasting and almost unimaginable the extent and area that bushfires have been burning across the country.

We talk about being bushfire prepared all of the time, because we do live in Australia and bushfires are not a new occurrence (maybe not to this extent all at once) but it seems even more important than ever now to talk about this.

We have been receiving calls and emails from our regular customers telling us of their near misses with fires and how being bushfire prepared saved their properties. 

In South Australian, one of our Franchisees had a customer who called to say thank you as the fire made it all the way up to the side of the house, burning the brickwork on their garage.  Unfortunately the houses on either side of their property were lost to the fire, but this customers house was still standing.  The Firefighters said it was because they were bushfire prepared with a well maintained home – with CLEAN gutters – that had only been cleaned a few weeks before in preparation for the summer bushfire season.

This may not be of any comfort to those that have been in the line of fire, homes damaged or even lost.  We have had a few of our franchisees evacuated from their own properties during this fire season and our thoughts are with everyone that has been affected, but we feel it is our duty to continue to remind everyone that you need to be bushfire prepared.

All it takes is a single ember to light up some dry debris in your gutters to start a fire.  Over this summer there have been reports of embers being 12 kms ahead of the fire front!  That’s incredible.

All of the fire services in each state have detailed suggestions for how to get your home and property prepared for bushfires and gutter cleaning is just one item on that list, so take the time…. It could save your home.

Again, we send our thoughts to all those affected and displaced during this bushfire season and continue to do good work locally across the nation to help local affected areas from working with emergency services, donations, food bank drop offs, use of our trucks and some of our franchisees have even been offering accommodation to those displaced.  We see if it first hand and we work on the ground locally to help.