Gutter Cleaning Safety Tips

The importance of cleaning rain gutters around your home can not be underestimated. Without free flowing gutters or eaves troughs to carry the water off your roof and away from your home, a tremendous amount of damage can be done to your home. From damaged siding, roofing, soffits and more, to foundation and basement flooding among others.

You have many options available to you when it comes to gutter cleaning. You can hire it done, do it yourself, or install one of the many types of gutter guard systems. But, if you are going to do it yourself, there are some important safety tips to keep in mind in order to make things as safe as possible.

Ladders

This is arguably the single most important safety consideration of the entire job. In the U.S. alone, thousands upon thousands of serious injuries, and even deaths, occur from falls off a step-ladder or extension ladder. Most of these accidents occur because people do not give safety enough thought. Don't let this happen to you.

Be sure you use a tall enough extension ladder for your roof. Extend it up 3-4 ft. above the roof line. Also, watch power lines. A metal ladder touching your home's power line is a recipe for disaster.

Next, you want to make sure the ladder is setting on solid, level ground. That means no snow, ice or mud underneath of it so the ladder won't slip when you are climbing up to your gutters. Stability is crucial, and if possible, have someone assist you by holding the ladder as you climb up and down for increased support and stability.

Finally, make certain the ladder is placed at a correct angle against the gutters. Generally speaking set it out one foot away from the side of your home for every four feet in height you raise it up.

Clothing

The right type of clothing is another important area to keep in mind before cleaning the gutters. Forget the loose clothing which can easily get caught up in the ladder, roofline and shingles. Loose clothes can easily get torn on sharp edges as well. Don't forget to wear a good pair of laced shoes for climbing up and down the ladder. Flip-flops just aren't safe for climbing.

One other important point is to always wear safety glasses when cleaning. When you flush out the gutter after clearing the debris out, you'll want to flush it out with the hose. That means all sorts of debris will be flying out and could easily get into your eyes.

Gloves

Always wear gloves when doing any kind of gutter cleaning. There's two quick reasons why I say that. First, there are a lot of sharp edges in most gutter systems. You have screws and in many cases, sharp sheet metal edges that can quickly slice open a finger.

Secondly, you'll be picking up all sorts of debris out your guttering that can be quite nasty. It's full of mold and other kinds of bacteria that you really don't want to be getting your hands into. I'd recommend rubber gloves because they are waterproof, but even a cheap pair of garden gloves are better than nothing.

Tools

Have the right tools to help you do the job more quickly. A garden spade can be a big help to you here. But you may want to look at getting one of the long handled gutter scoops. What's nice about something like that is it allows you to stand on your ladder and clean the gutter channel much further away from you. That means you're not having to climb up and down to move the ladder down the roofline so often. And that means you're not getting so worn out after you finish.