I'm Broden, and I own a business
in Connecticut called The Gutter Guyz.
Today I'm going to show you how to clean gutters
with wet and dry debris.
So, when we clean a gutter with wet debris,
nine times out of 10,
we want to clean it by hand.
The reason why is when it's wet,
it typically is very muddy
and there's a lot of what we call
shingle dust or grit in the gutters,
and it's literally a mud.
And when we blow them when they're wet,
it makes a muddy mess all over the house.
We want to clean them by hand for that reason.
So, that is a gutter that is completely
jammed with leaves and debris,
and the downspout was completely covered.
When we released the debris out of the downspout
and got that gutter cleaned,
all of that rainwater that was in the gutter
just started to flow very heavily
right down the downspout, as it should.
So, oftentimes when we do a gutter cleaning,
not only do we find leaves,
but we find plants so big
that we actually call them trees,
sometimes, growing right out of a gutter.
We're actually pulling out a big plant,
and you can see the whole root system
come right out with it.
Certain types of trees give off
these little things that come off the tree
and will grow another tree,
and when those land in the gutter,
it's a perfect environment for that to grow.
It's a classic sign that your gutters
have not been cleaned in years.
It also puts a significant amount of weight
from the whole root system growing in the gutter
on the gutter, which in turn
will pull that gutter off of the fascia board,
which is actually the board behind the gutter
that the gutter is mounted to.
Wet debris is usually just saturated with water.
Water will overflow at the gutter
and get into your basement
and create cracks in your foundation.
Once water does find its way into your basement,
it wreaks havoc.
Here, the water that's flowing
out of the downspout at the bottom
is the end result that we are looking for.
So that water will flow down and out,
as it properly should.
When we see dry debris,
the reason why that debris is dry
is because there has not been any rain
in the past, I would say, week or so.
So when we clean a gutter that has dry debris,
oftentimes we will use a hand blower
and blow those gutters out,
because it does a really good job
of just getting everything out of the gutter,
whether it be leaves or sticks or curly stuff
that comes off in the spring.
Depending on the pitch of the roof,
we will get on that roof,
start our hand blower,
and walk across that roofline
hand-blowing out all of the debris
out of that gutter.
Sometimes the debris is very compact
and it's thick.
That's a classic sign of maybe a couple of years
that somebody had not had their gutters cleaned.
We stick to one type of ladder,
and that's an aluminum ladder.
The aluminum ladder does conduct electricity,
so it's very important we stay
away from power lines
when we are moving aluminum ladders.
We could get severely electrocuted.
It's certainly deadly,
which is why we mark the power-line areas with flags
before we start a gutter cleaning.
Because you're looking where you're walking,
so you don't look up to see the power lines.
So it's very important for us to have
the reminder that power lines are there.
We will often drop a penny down the downspout
just to know that that downspout's free and clear,
because we can see and hear it go
all the way through and back out at the bottom
and we know that we're in good shape.
The best advice I can give a homeowner
is to be proactive, not reactive.
Typically when you're reactive, it's too late.
Damage has been done,
the water may already be in your basement,
it may already be in your home,
and it's just not a good way to maintain your house.
Water is seriously detrimental to your house,
and the main cause of water is from your gutters.
So if you keep the gutters free and clear
and you do consistent cleaning,
whether it be two or three times per year,
which we recommend,
you will never have any issues
with water in your basement
or ruining your flower beds
or rotting out the fascia and soffits of your home.
Just stay on top of gutter cleaning.