Gutter Care Guide

Gutters are an important part of your home: they catch rainwater from the roof and channel it away from the walls and foundations. When they fill with leaves, dirt and debris, water can no longer flow — and it will find its own way out instead.

Gutters that are never cleaned end up rusting from damp leaves and dirt sitting in them, while dry leaves in gutters present a serious fire hazard. If you rely on a rainwater tank for drinking water, clean gutters are essential.

Gutter cleaning is not an easy DIY task — gutters are high, hard to reach without a ladder, and there are few good DIY tools available. A professional crew inspects the roof and gutters first, then brings the right equipment for the job — often a ute-mounted vacuum with a 60 metre hose — to take the muck out, collect it in a drum and take it all away, leaving no mess behind.

Our teams are trained to work safely at heights with harness and lifeline, hold a WorkCover licence for high-risk work, and carry public liability and WorkCover insurance — so a blocked second-storey gutter never has to mean you on a ladder.

Residential work covers single and double storey homes, townhouses and units. Commercial work is a different scale: schools and childcare centres (where all staff hold police checks and working-with-children checks), hospitals, government buildings, retirement villages, industrial facilities, heritage buildings and strata properties.

Commercial sites often need cherry pickers or travel towers, compliance documentation and scheduled maintenance programs so gutters across a whole portfolio are cleaned before storm season, every time.

Your roof and gutters work as one system. Keep an eye out after windy weather for leaves gathering in valleys and gutters, and check that water actually runs to the downpipes during rain rather than pooling or overflowing.

If you have solar panels, keep them clean too — dirty panels can lose up to 25% of their efficiency. Panels should be cleaned with filtered water and no detergents, and can install bird-proof mesh, plus spikes, to stop nesting under the panels.

Blocked gutters let water cascade over the front — or worse, flow back over the eaves and into the house. Many leaking roofs are actually caused by blocked gutters and downpipes, not by the roof itself.

The cheapest insurance against ceiling stains, damp walls and damaged eaves is simply keeping gutters and downpipes clear so every drop of rain goes where it is supposed to.

Wet leaves and dirt sitting in a gutter slowly rust it out, decomposed leaves turn into a heavy sludge that stops water flow, and overflowing water finds its way into fascias, eaves and walls.

Where a vacuum clean is the right method, it removes everything — leaves, sludge and silt — rather than just flicking the top layer onto your garden, and all of the rubbish is collected and taken away.

Downpipes are where blockages cause the most trouble: once a downpipe blocks, the whole gutter run backs up. Clearing them is part of a proper gutter clean.

To keep them clear between cleans, we recommend a removable “hedgehog” guard over each downpipe, installed in sizes from 300 mm to one metre. It lifts out easily for cleaning — unlike fixed mesh, which is costly to remove and still lets dirt and decomposed leaves build up underneath.

The worst time to discover a blocked gutter is halfway through a Melbourne downpour. Before storm season, have gutters and downpipes cleaned so heavy rain can drain freely instead of flooding back into the house.

Property managers and body corporates can set up scheduled maintenance programs so every property in a portfolio is cleaned before storm season — automatically, every year.

How often gutters need cleaning depends on the trees around your home — most properties benefit from at least an annual clean, and homes under heavy tree cover may need more. Regular professional cleaning keeps gutters well-maintained and extends their life.

Set a reminder before the next storm season, or simply call 1300 800 757 — quotes are free over the phone using a Google Maps address lookup.