Gutter cleaning

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if people have any recommendations for someone to clean gutters. I've used AAA Sparkling Window and Gutter of Watertown for several years but I thought that it would be useful to do some comparison shopping.

Comments

[enhf94.livejournal.com]

American Gutter Cleaning will come to your house, borrow your hose faucet, and flush your gutters. They come "anytime within a one-week window you choose." They have barely made an impression on me.

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info.

I'm confused by your comment though. By "barely made an impression" do you mean that they have done a nice job with no hassles or you have no real opinion of their work and price competitiveness? Please explain. Thanks

[enhf94.livejournal.com]

Kind of both. I inherited them from the former caretaker and haven't gotten around to doing research on price competitiveness because they haven't given me any problems. I've never spoken to them beyond a phone call, which was businesslike. I imagine they are focused on getting as many customers as possible at a low margin, but I dunno. When the actual work is performed, it takes less than fifteen minutes, so the price seems a bit high right up until the moment I consider doing it myself.

My comment is neither a recommendation or disrecommendation - just "here's one of the companies around here the does it."

Sorry - I'm not trying to be unhelpful; I just don't have much help to give.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

"borrow your hose faucet, and flush your gutters"

Does that work? Our gutters have such a large mass of leaves that there's no way they could get washed down the downspouts. The leaves have to get scooped of the gutters out by hand.

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

I think that the idea is that they scoop out the debris first and then flush to remove any remaining debris and to ensure that the downspouts are clear.

The unfortunate part is that if you read many of the on-line reviews of gutter cleaning services they are rife with complaints that they don't always perform the services that they are paid for. And given that the homeowner does not want to go up on a ladder to check, there is no easy way to tell unless you have overflow problems down the road.

I have some similar concerns about the guys that I have been using and this is borne out in some of their reviews but this seems to be a universal complaint.

[enhf94.livejournal.com]

having paid attention this time when they came, I can now report that American Gutter Cleaning forgot my garage. When I called, they graciously set up another appointment for next week.