What are the Best Gutter Cleaning Tools?

The most effective tools for gutter cleaning are hand trowels and hand shovels, garden hoses, leaf rakes, and leaf blowers. While a number of high-tech tools are available, hand cleaning for gutters and downspouts remains the most efficient manner.

In addition to these hand tools, gutter cleaning requires one or more ladders (typically an extension ladder up to 20 feet and a 10 to 12 foot step ladder), buckets, trash bags, gloves, eye protection, screw or nut drivers, and landscape coverings.

In This Article:

  • Gutter Cleaning Tools
  • What Gets Stuck In The Gutters?
  • How Do You Clean Out Dirt and Debris?
  • What Are The Best Gutter Cleaning Tools
  • Our Gutter Cleaning Services

What Gets Stuck in the Gutters?

To understand what kind of tools you’ll need for the job, you first need to know what you’ll be cleaning out of your gutters. On the bottom of your gutters, you’ll most likely find a small layer of silt. This is made up of small dirt particles, fine dust particles, and sandy particles. The silt layer collects underneath everything else and creates a thin layering on the bottom of the gutters, building up over time.

On top of the silt, you can find a lot of organic materials from plants around your area. If you have trees around, it’s very likely you’ll discover leaves or pine needles inside the gutters. Seeds from various plants may accumulate inside the gutters and start to sprout in the silt if they’re left long enough. Twigs and small sticks get caught up in the leaves as well. Organic materials cause most of the clogs in gutters.

Beyond the normal organic materials, you may find inorganic materials like tennis balls or toys. This is more likely if you have kids in your household or around the neighborhood. Otherwise, you can also find bug nests, animals nests, and roofing materials from a failing roof.

How Do You Clean Out Dirt and Debris?

To get rid of each of the types of dirt and debris caught in your gutters, you’ll need different types of gutter cleaning tools. For the silt layer, you’ll want something that can scoop it up and breaks up the dirt layers, so that the rest can be easily washed down. For other, larger materials, a claw-type tool is useful for working out large piles of debris.

What Are the Best Gutter Cleaning Tools?

Some of the best tools to use are handheld cultivators, trowels, pressure washers, vacuum tools (like leaf vacuums or leaf blowers), and manual weed removal tools. A mixture of a few different types of tools will help you make sure you get everything out of your gutter, and you end up with a clean system at the end of the day. Garden hoses are generally useful at the end of cleaning, to make sure you get all the little leftover pieces washed out.

Our Gutter Cleaning Services

If the downspouts are dirty, you may be able to flush the debris out with a pressure washer or garden hose. But, if there’s a clog you’ll probably have to take the gutters apart at the top and push the clog through to the bottom, or to the next seam that you may also take apart for convenience. If you don’t know how to do this safely and without damaging the gutters, you may want to call in professional help.

Gutter cleaning tools are nothing special, and most people already have these types of things sitting around their sheds or garages for other uses around the house. Grab your trusted cultivator or pressure washer and head up the ladder to get the gutters cleaned this season. If you would rather enjoy your weekend and let the pro’s handle your gutter cleaning for you, then get a quote for gutter cleaning here and go grab another beer.