What is the safest way to clean gutters?
Why should Gutters and Downpipes be cleaned?
For a number of reasons, gutters need to be cleaned frequently:
- Gutter installation’s main purpose is to keep water away from your home’s foundation and guard against water damage. Water can overflow and pool near the foundation when gutters are blocked with leaves, twigs, and other debris, perhaps causing structural damage to your property.
- Avoiding mold and mildew: Clogged gutters can also produce a moist atmosphere that is ideal for the development of mold and mildew. These fungi can damage your health and produce offensive odors.
- Keeping pests away: Clogged gutters can draw in pests like rats, insects, and birds, who may utilize the debris as a food source or a place to nest. Infestations in and around your home may result from this.
- Increasing the lifespan of your gutters: By minimizing the accumulation of debris and lowering the danger of corrosion and rust, regular gutter cleaning can help increase the lifespan of your gutters.
Overall, cleaning your gutters on a regular basis is a crucial maintenance job that may help shield your house from problems like water damage, mold, bugs, and others. Gutter cleaning is advised at least twice a year, or more frequently if you live in a region with dense foliage or frequent storms.
There are three ways of cleaning gutters let’s look at them all and define the safest best method
- Roof Access with manual removal or vacuum system
- Ladder access with removal from ladder
- SkyVac gutter vacuum from the ground
A paper written by Flinders University talks about the dangers of working at height and ladder-related accidents.
Here is a summary:
- 3,486 ladder-related injury events that required hospital admission occurred in the year ending June 30, 2005. Males made up 4/5 of those incidents.
- Age-standardized rates of injurious falls from ladders were highest for older people; for males aged 65 years and older, this rate was 73.9 per 100,000, and for females aged 65 years and older, this rate was 18.4 per 100,000.
- The most common primary diagnoses resulting from ladder-related falls were injuries to the elbow and forearm, knee and lower leg, and injuries to the head.
- Fractures were the most common type of injury from ladders, accounting for two-thirds of hospitalized injury events.
Roof Access Methods
This can involve manual removal by hand or a vacuuming system. The consideration that you should take into account with a “gutter cleaning service“, process, or procedure and, or as a “DIY homeowner” cleaning task.
- SWMS – Method statements
- Working at heights
- Anchorage systems
- Harnesses- use and compliance
- Insurances
- Use of ladders, and anchorage
- Rescue and safety standby operators
Working at height in any industry can pose risks. Following a set procedure and having systems in place can elevate a business in professionalism.
Roof access can also impose other factors. Damage with cracking tiles by foot traffic, dragging hoses over ridge caps and denting metal roof sheeting.
Working from a ladder
Three points of contact: Yes, that is correct. When working from a ladder, it is recommended to maintain three points of contact with the ladder at all times to ensure stability and prevent falls. This means that both feet and one hand, or both hands and one foot, should be in contact with the ladder at all times. This helps to distribute your weight evenly and reduces the risk of tipping or losing your balance. Additionally, it’s important to ensure that the ladder is on a stable surface and that it is set up properly before using it.
Cleaning gutters one story, two stories, and three stories from a ladder imposes many risks, and reviewing the current falls associated with ladder works should make operators think twice about their own safety.
The safest way to clean gutters
Vacuum systems from Skyvac, have revolutionized safety and processes with gutter cleaning.
With more than 14 years of expertise in the gutter cleaning sector, skyVac® has been at the forefront of several developments that have improved the process’s safety, efficiency, and ease.
Our assortment of gutter-clearing vacuums has been meticulously field tested from the bottom up to provide great performance and an unmatched user experience. No need for a ladder!
Our systems, which range from the lightweight, best-selling skyVac® Mighty atom to the skyVac® Interceptor with an onboard power plant, are popular among professionals who specialize in external cleaning as well as facility managers.
Why attempt to balance the risks associated with operating at heights and health and safety when the skyVac® gutter vac system enables a single operator to remove gutter growths up to 40 feet high and above safely? Safety comes at a cost and if that cost is a safer way to clean then the process has been very successful here in Australia and around the world.
Costs associated with gutter cleaning
The argument is that there is always a compromise or trade-off and the client should decide which;
- Cheap and fast = low quality
- Fast and good = expensive
- Good and cheap = takes time
Performing a process does take time, and time is money. Initial cleans will be charged at a higher rate, compare to frequent cleaning. Standard pricing from organizations with good infrastructure following procedures will range in the vicinity of $ 80 to $160 per hour. Time traveling and operating expenses are all absorbed and quoted, or supplied to a customer to complete the gutter clean and these makeup part of any business’s hourly rate. The single story should take on average two hours and the double story three, as rough guidelines.
Clean Safe:)
Last updated: January 27 2024