10 Eavestrough Maintenance Tips and Tricks

As the weather turns colder and the leaves start to change, you’ll want to make sure that your eavestroughs are fully cleaned.  Here are 10 tips and tricks to make the process easier.

#1 Regular cleaning

Clean your eavestroughs at least twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.  If there are plenty of trees in your neighbourhood or if it’s a very windy year you’ll want to check them more frequently.

Roof in the rain

#2 Clean before a storm

It’s a good idea to clean your eavestroughs before a big storm rather than afterwards.  the leaves and debris will be nice and dry and you won’t have to worry about clogs and stoppages during the storm.

#3 Use ladder safety

Clean your eavestroughs while firmly standing on a ladder.  Don’t attempt to clean them from the top of the roof and don’t lean out past the sides of the ladder.  It’s annoying to move the ladder so often, but it’s safer that way.

#4 Don’t rest your ladder on the eavestrough.

If you’re using an extension ladder, make sure to use some sort of ladder stabilizer so you don’t damage your eavestroughs.

#5 Keep the ground clean too

To gather the garbage and debris in your eavestrough, either attach a bucket to your ladder or throw a tarp down underneath the area you’re working on.

#6 Keep your hands clean

Use a trowel or gloves to remove leaves, garbage, children’s toys, small animals, etc.  Especially if you’re cleaning your eavestrough before it’s dry.

Close up of a gutter

#7 flush towards the downspout

When using a hose to flush out smaller debris, start at the end of the eavestrough furthest from the downspout and gradually make your way down towards the downspout.

#8 Dealing with clogs

If only a trickle of water comes out the downspout, you’ve got a clog.  Running the hose at high pressure right into the downspout should unclog it.

#9 Dealing with worse clogs

If the hose isn’t able to unclog the downspout, use a plumber’s snake to clear the blockage.

Full gutter

#10 Ask us for help

If you don’t want to clean your eavestrough yourself, we provide an eavestrough cleaning service where we clean your eavestrough every Fall.  If you’re interested, contact us at 780-884-8785 or [email protected]

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