Gutters
This is the part of the season when this job reminds me that I can't please everyone.
Since 2011, I've worked for over 2500 homeowners here on Cape Cod. A small-ish fraction of those have me clean their gutters each autumn, but that "small fraction" still adds up to a lot of gutters to clean.
Homeowners who want their gutters cleaned in the autumn understandably want this service performed as late as possible so that the gutters don't fill up with falling leaves again right after they have been cleaned. What most homeowners typically don't understand is that once nighttime temps dip below freezing, the clogged gutters don't just thaw out on the next warm day. They don't. And cleaning frozen gutters is far, farrrrrrr more costly than cleaning them when they're not frozen.
So the task is to clean a whole lot of gutters at the last possible minute. Do them too early, and folks complain that they'll get full of leaves again. Do them too late, and it's REALLY too late.
... and that's why I've learned the hard way to strictly limit the number of gutter cleaning jobs I take on each year. And that's why I turn away far more gutter cleaning jobs than I actually perform.
Addressing a few more common questions:
- Why don't we just automatically schedule all the gutter jobs from last year? I used to do that, and I cleaned far too many gutters for free. Each year, 10-20% of our gutter customers move away or pass away. Nobody tells us when this happens, and the new homeowners are NEVER happy to pay for a service they didn't ask for.
- Can we schedule your gutter cleanings now for a specific time/date in late autumn? No. The exact work date depends upon many things, including the weather in November (have early storms shaken the leaves off?), nighttime temps ... and the many, many other gutters jobs already on the schedule. By necessity I group them by town and neighborhood.
- Does anyone need to be home when the gutters are cleaned? No.
- Do I need to use a spigot? No. My truck carries plenty of water.
- Can I clean out the clogged drain which disappears into the yard? Probably not.
- Can we schedule your gutter cleaning for December? No. Recall it was only a few years ago when we woke up to a frozen world in early December... and it didn't unfreeze until springtime. Remember: once temperatures briefly dip below freezing at night, the contents of the gutters freeze solid. Most homeowners don't understand that those frozen gutters typically don't thaw out during the daytime. Frozen gutters cannot be cleaned out for anything remotely like the normal rates you pay.
- Rates: We charge $1 per foot per floor and our minimum service charge is $165 (up $15 from last year). We routinely hear that this is competitive with other fully-insured gutter cleaning services.
- Can I repair your gutter? Most likely. If I'm already cleaning your gutters, I can perform small gutter maintenance and repair jobs if needed, such as re-attaching disconnected downspouts, sealing pinhole leaks, etc. Those repairs are performed and billed based upon time and materials only.




