How often should gutters be cleaned?
There is a standard answer and there is the answer for your house. Here are both.
The standard answer is twice a year: once in late autumn, after the leaves have finished coming down, so the gutters go into the wet months clear; and once in spring, to shift what winter storms, frost and moss have added. For a typical house with a tree or two somewhere nearby, that is about right.
The answer for your house depends on what is above the gutter. A roof with no trees over it and no moss on it can often go a year. A house under a large deciduous tree, or with a mossy north slope, may need looking at three or four times, and after every big storm.
When gutters need cleaning
Twice a year is the usual rule — late autumn once the leaves are down, and spring. Sooner if:
- There are trees over or near the roof
- The roof is mossy
- Water comes over the edge in heavy rain
- Plants are growing in the gutter
- There is a green streak on the wall
- The downpipe gurgles or overflows at the top
A gutter that is cleaned before it overflows costs a clean. One that overflows for a winter costs a wall.
The cost of waiting
A gutter that is cleaned on time costs a clean. A gutter that overflows all winter costs a wall: algae on the brickwork, softened mortar, damp inside, and sometimes a rotten fascia board behind the gutter, because the overflow ran down the back of it. The clean is cheaper than any of those, which is why the routine matters more than the exact month.
More guides
Why gutters overflow, and what it does to a house
The four causes of water over the edge, and why the wall underneath is the real cost.
02Moss on the roof: why it matters more than it looks
What moss does to tiles and gutters, why some roofs grow it and others do not, and how it should come off.
03Signs of a roof leak, inside and out
What to look for on the ceiling, in the loft and from the garden, and why the leak is rarely where the stain is.
04After a storm: what to check from the ground
A ten-minute walk round the house that finds most storm damage before the next rain does.
05What a roof and gutter inspection covers
The six things that get looked at, and what each one tells you.