Debris in the gutters may block drainage of the gutter/downspout system resulting in the gutters overflowing during moderate to heavy rains. Watch the video below showing how to clean blocked gutters with a pressure washer cleaning attachment, and read on below for more information.
The overflowing water from the gutters in the video below will accumulate against the exterior foundation walls of the home and subsequently infiltrate into or through the foundation walls resulting in basement water leakage or wall-seepage. Blocked gutters are common on properties with surrounding trees, especially trees that are close to an area of the roof or building, due to debris falling into the gutters. Learning how to clean blocked gutters is relatively easy, and can save hundreds of dollars per year in gutter cleaning fees if you were to hire the job out. Cleaning out blocked gutters can also save thousands of dollars in waterproofing fees or foundation repairs if these gutters would otherwise be left to overflow against foundation walls over a period of many years. See the below quick video for an example of blocked gutters in need of cleaning.
Gutters are the horizontal troughs installed around the building’s roof eaves, designed to catch rain water that falls onto the surface of the roof, and direct it to a nearby downspout. These gutters can easily become blocked with leaves, roof shingle granulation, child’s toys, or other debris throughout the year and will require cleaning. The video at the top of this article and the products mentioned in this article are intended to help readers learn on how to clean their own blocked gutters.
The first and most common condition worth mentioning is that the gutters will easily become clogged and need to be cleaned or freed from all debris blocking the drainage flow including twigs, leaves, roof shingle granulation, and other foreign objects, so that gutters do not become clogged and overflow during heavy rains, which will allow the water to accumulate around the home. Blocked Gutters will require cleaning. This is especially important with gutters that are directly below or near tree branches. A long extension wand is ideal for cleaning blocked gutters on a second story roof due to the danger involved with traversing a ladder and constantly moving or adjusting the ladder to clean the gutters.
If you can see small plants or other vegetation growing from inside of your gutters, it is a sign that they are clogged and require cleaning.
Notice the vegetation growing in the gutter, and the dirty drip marks running down the face of the gutter. The gutters were overflowing profusely and water was coming into the basement below.
From organic tree vegetation, twigs, berries, and seeds – to roof shingles, and foreign objects like balls or other toys, etc. Any and all foreign objects should be removed and cleaned out from the gutter/downspout system to allow for proper drainage and to prevent rain water from overflowing the gutters, which can make the basement walls wet.
Correction would involve cleaning out the gutters and considering gutter guard installation to prevent the gutter blockages moving forward.
Cleaning out the gutters is a relatively easy do-it-yourself job, assuming you are comfortable getting up onto a roof or ladder. Gutters will need to be cleaned usually at least once per year if you live if a wooded environment and have trees close by. You can consider hiring someone to clean out your gutters, and if you have a very tall or high roof line, this may be the right idea for you. But beware, there is almost no way to check the contractor’s work if you do not have a drone or can not view the gutters closely from a window on the upper levels of the home. For this reason, consider doing the job of cleaning the gutters out by yourself. There are many tools available these days to help out with the task.
Although I do not recommend that people get on a ladder unless they are experienced and physically capable of doing so, if the gutters are low and accessible, and you are comfortable on a ladder, you could consider manually cleaning your gutters out with a shovel or scoop that is narrow enough to fit into the gutter trough. Such as this cheap plastic scoop available on Amazon.com. People can easily clean lower gutter runs manually. The high handle position protects hands from scrapes and scratches and the extended tongue reaches under gutter supports. These photos are from amazon.com and not mine personally:
Another option would be using either a garden-hose attached telescoping wand to reach your gutters, or even better, a pressure washer attachment wand for gutter cleaning. Super blocked gutters may require the extra force that a pressure washer provides to blow out the debris that is blocking a gutter. A pressure washer is also a great tool to have as it can be used with a sewer jet attachment to clean out downspouts and underground drains.
Overall, if you were to ask me how to clean blocked gutters in the safest way, I would recommend purchasing a pressure washer and familiarizing one self with how to use one, and the attachments that can be used with the pressure washer to clean gutters, downspouts, underground drains, and various other areas of the home. I also prefer the electric powered units over the gas powered units because I don’t need another small gas powered engine appliance to maintain over the years and through the winters here in Cleveland, Ohio.
When it comes to cleaning out blocked gutters, I prefer the pressure washer attachments both for cleaning out the gutters, and also jetting out the drain lines underneath.
The pressure from the cleaning is very strong with a power washer, and the debris is more easily kicked out of the gutter. Some of the debris will inevitably wash down from the gutter into the downspout. But the downspouts can be cleaned more easily with a pressure washer and the various attachments that can be used with it.
Starting out, there are various cheap pressure-washer gutter-cleaning attachments that can be purchased and used. Some of these involve connecting together various sections of piping and the overall use of the cheaper attachments has been clunky in my experience.
After reviewing and trying out several other products, I splurged and spent the $170 or whatever it was to purchase a Janz brand commercial grade gutter cleaning attachment for my pressure washer. The construction was more solid, and what I enjoyed the most was the ease with which I could adjust the height of the pressure washer cleaner. Additionally, the one from Janz comes with a support harness, whereas the cheaper units do not. If you have a lot of gutter length to clean, do yourself a favor and purchase one that comes with a support harness. Otherwise your arms and back will be screaming after a long day of cleaning the gutters.
Another feature that I liked was that this attachment extends up to 24 feet, can reach gutters at a higher level than many other attachments, and eliminates the need for a ladder in most cases. Using a pressure washer on a ladder can be dangerous due to the recoil from some pressure washers knocking people off balance and causing them to fall from the ladder. Ladder injuries are no joke and not to be taken lightly.
For that reason, splurging a little extra cash on a pressure washer and a tall cleaning attachment like this one can save you unnecessary pain in the long run. This pressure washer attachment that I have linked to can only work with pressure washers up to 4000 PSI. so if you have a super larger monster pressure washer over 4000 PSI, then this attachment likely will not work with that. But most homeowners who have gas or electric pressure washers usually have them in the 2000-3200 PSI range, which is more than enough for most homeowner pressure washer uses.
TREE BRANCHES THAT ARE TOUCHING OR OVERHANGING ROOFS OR GUTTERS ARE OFTEN TIMES A CAUSE OF MANY ROOF OR GUTTER ISSUES.
For example, the leaves, branches, and other debris that fall from the trees will accumulate on the roof and in the gutters. The gutters will become blocked and overflow. Also, the debris that lays on the roof will eventually fall down into the gutters at some point. One con that arises with flushing all of the debris down the gutters and downspouts is that the debris is being washed down into the downspout and unless there is a screen or trap to catch the debris for someone to clean it out, the debris will wash down further underground, where it can lead to blockages again that can back up the water flow during heavy rains. Be sure to watch the video for a PRO-TIP on how to avoid this issue.
There are also cheaper attachments that go directly onto your garden hose that you can consider, if you do not already have a pressure washer or desire purchasing one, and the gutter blockage is not too heavy. Take a look at this telescoping cleaning wand from Amazon.com. The wand connects together to extend to 7 feet high, so again, this is primarily only useful for cleaning lower level gutter runs but they can be effective and safer than climbing up on a ladder for some. There are also two short videos on the amazon page for this hose cleaning wand. One video shows the wand being set up quickly, and another video is from a customer review that shows the cleaning wand being used and washing debris down the downspout.
TREE BRANCHES DON’T JUST CAUSE BLOCKED GUTTERS - THE DEBRIS THAT FALLS INTO GUTTERS FROM TREES CAN WASH DOWN INTO THE DOWNSPOUT AND CREATE BLOCKAGES THERE TOO.
In addition to clearing out all gutter runs around the home, the downspouts (which are the vertical runs leading down towards the ground, and underground) can easily become blocked, since the debris from the gutters above will simply wash down the downspout pipes and potentially block the lines, This can happen in the downspouts or storm drains above and below the ground.
This downspout crock is filled with water at the point where it leads underground.
Water filling up at this location may indicate a blockage further downstream in the line. This blockage is leading to overflow of the crock and water accumulation around the corner of the home. Water staining is visible both on the exterior wall of the home, and inside of the basement in this interior location. These below grade downspout drains will need to be inspected with a camera to determine if they only need to be cleaned of debris, or if they are cracked/collapsed or damaged and in need of further repair.
Now that we have covered how to clean blocked gutters, stay tuned for more information regarding how to clean or jet out your own underground storm drains. And in the meantime, see this article about discharging downspouts away from foundation walls so as not to cause a wetness problem in the basement. Thanks for reading. Please leave any comments or question in the comment box!
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