Is gutter cleaning included with a roof clean?

Everything that leaves a roof ends up at the bottom. Dead moss, grit shed from the tile surface and old leaves all follow the water down the slope and into the gutter, where they pack into the outlet and sit in the run. A roof that is spotless above a full gutter has not really been cleaned, it has been moved a few feet.

That is why the two jobs belong in the same visit. Clearing the gutters first stops the first rinse from blocking them, and clearing them again at the end picks up what the roof has shed in the meantime. Our answer on moss blocking gutters explains how debris builds up and what it does to the wall below, and why a gutter that looks fine from the drive can be full at the back of the house, where nobody looks until the rain starts.

Quotes for a roof clean vary in what they include, so do not assume. Ask whether the gutters and downpipes are cleared, whether the work covers the front and the back of the house, and whether the debris is taken away or left in a heap in the garden. Find out if VAT and any tower or scaffold are inside the figure, since either one can move what you end up paying.

Our written quote follows the survey, names one figure and describes the scope in plain words. If a repair turns up, such as a cracked tile or a leaking joint, it is raised with you before anything is done, never added afterwards. Having the scope on paper means you know what the visit covers and what it does not, and it spares both sides any argument on the day about what was agreed.

Reaching the roof edge usually means a tower, a ladder platform or a scaffold, and the gutters sit at the same height as the eaves. Once that access is in place, clearing the gutters takes a fraction of the effort of setting it up again for a separate visit. That is the sensible reason to combine the jobs, and it is why a gutter-only booking made a month later can cost as much to reach as the roof clean did.

It also makes the check more thorough. With a person at gutter level, the brackets, joints, fascia and soffit can be inspected at arm's length. Loose brackets, open joints and staining on the board show up quickly, and they are easier to deal with when found early. Our gutter cleaning page covers the clearing itself, from hand work to vacuum methods.

A clean clears blockages. It does not seal a leaking joint, straighten a sagging run or put right a gutter set with too little fall. If water still pours over the edge after the debris has gone, the cause is something other than dirt. Brackets may be too far apart, the gutter may have been fitted without the right fall, or a joint seal may have perished.

Rotten fascia boards and soffits are another thing a clean can reveal but not cure. Where we find faults, we photograph them and explain the options, and any repair is a decision for you. Our section on guttering, soffits and fascias explains the repair side, and a clean is a convenient moment to learn what shape the roofline is in before the winter rain arrives.

The sequence matters. The heavy debris comes out of the gutters first, so the treatment and rinse can run away freely. The roof is then treated and, once it is clean, the gutters and downpipes are cleared a second time. Flushing the system with water at the end shows whether it runs clear to the drain, which is the proper test that nothing is left behind.

The site is cleared at the end of the visit and the waste taken away, so that the drive and borders are as they were. Where birds are using the eaves, that stretch is left alone, and you are told on the day, so an uncleared patch comes as no surprise. If you want this done for a house that has not been cleaned in a while, send photographs of the roof and gutters through the roof cleaning and moss removal page, and tell us which side the downpipes sit on. That is enough for a first opinion before we visit, and it saves a wasted trip if the answer turns out to be a simple one.