Cleaning Your Own Gutters: Where the Ladder Line Falls in St. Louis

A gutter full of wet maple seed is a specific problem, and most homeowners in the St. Louis area notice it in the same stretch every spring and again after the oaks drop their leaves. The question is whether you can clear it yourself with a ladder and a bucket, or whether the job belongs to someone with a longer ladder and a second person on the ground. This page is for the homeowner partway through that decision. It covers how to judge your own ladder situation, what to check while the gutter is open, when to stop, and what to ask if you hire the work out.

Gutters and guards: start with the eave height

Measure the height of the eave where the gutter sits, not the height of the house overall. A one story ranch with the gutter a little above head height is a different job from a two story house with a steep pitch over the back porch. The working rule most ladder guides give is the four to one rule: set an extension ladder so the base sits about one foot out from the wall for every four feet of height to the point where you will rest it. If you cannot set the ladder that way on your lot because of a patio, a slope, or a bush you do not want to lose, the job is already telling you something.

Set the feet on firm, level ground. In St. Louis that is often the hard part. The freeze and thaw cycle leaves soft spots along the bed line in late winter, and a ladder that sinks two inches on one side will walk sideways once you climb. Tie the top to the gutter or the fascia only if the ladder is built for it, and do not rely on the gutter to hold you. Vinyl and aluminum gutters are not designed to carry a person's weight, and a section that looks solid can release at the hanger.

Work when the gutter is dry if you can. A wet gutter packed with leaves is heavy, slick, and hard to scoop, and the leaves in a spring gutter tend to be a sticky mat rather than loose debris. Do not clear gutters on a morning with frost or ice on the ground, even if the sun is out. The bottom rung and the grass beside the ladder stay slick long after the lawn looks dry.

Keep the ladder at least ten feet from any overhead service line, and treat the service drop from the pole as live. Many St. Louis houses have that line running close to the eave on the street side, and a gutter cleaner that swings a wet hose or a metal scoop near it is a common cause of injury. If the line is close, stop and call someone with the right equipment.

What to check while the debris is out

Clearing the gutter is the easy part. The useful part is what you see once the trough is empty. Push on each hanger by hand. If the gutter moves in your hand, a spike has pulled out of the fascia, or the hanger has lost its grip in the soffit or the wood behind it. Note which section it is and how far it moves, because a loose run usually starts at one bad hanger and spreads from there.

Run a hose into the top of each downspout and watch the bottom. Water should come out at once, with no gurgle and no back-up at the top. If it comes out slowly or not at all, the downspout is blocked, and the blockage is often at an elbow where the pipe has been crimped or dented. Do not push a rod hard up a downspout that is crimped at the bottom, because you can split the seam. Mark the location and move on.

Look at the trough at each end and at each corner. Water staining down the outside of the fascia, or dark streaks on the wall under a corner, usually means water is leaving the trough at a joint or an end cap. That is a sign the gutter is doing its job in the wrong place, and it is worth photographing before the next rain covers the evidence.

If the gutter has guards, the cleaning is a different task. Some guards lift off as panels, some are fastened with screws, and a few have to be taken off a section at a time. Pulling a guard hard to reach the debris underneath can bend it, and a bent guard sits wrong and can sag. Check your install paperwork first. If you do not have it, find the model name on the box or the sticker and save it before the box goes to the curb.

When to stop and call

Stop climbing and call someone if any of these is true. The eave is more than one story above the ground, or the roof is steep enough that you would need to step onto the roof to reach the gutter. A hanger or section pulls away when you touch it. The fascia board behind the gutter is soft, spongy, or flaking when you press it with a screwdriver. A tree limb is leaning on the gutter or on the roof above it. There is any wire, cable, or service line within reach of the ladder as you move it. You are working alone and the ladder is more than a few rungs off the ground.

A loose gutter is not something to fix with a longer screw on the same day. A new screw into soft fascia will hold for a while and then tear out in the next wind, which is often worse than the gap you started with. If the wood is soft, the fix is in the fascia, and that is a different scope from cleaning.

What it costs

Doing it yourself costs your time plus the tools: a stable extension ladder, work gloves, a gutter scoop or a plastic trowel, a bucket, and a hose with enough reach to reach the top of each downspout. If you already own those, the out of pocket cost is close to nothing. The real cost is the risk of a fall, which is why the stop conditions above matter more than the price.

Hiring it out is priced by the job, and the number depends on the eave height, the length of the run, how many downspouts there are, whether the debris is bagged and carried off the property, and whether the crew checks the hangers and flushes each downspout. We do not have a single figure to give you from this page, and any price you see quoted without those details is not comparing the same work. Ask for the quote in writing, with the scope listed so you can see what is in it.

When two quotes come in, check whether each one covers the same visit, the same downspouts, and the same debris removal. A low number that leaves out the flush and the hanger check is not the cheaper job. It is a smaller one.

What to ask

1. Does the price cover every downspout, with each one flushed and checked for water flow at the bottom?
2. Who carries away the debris, and does the crew leave the property clear of it?
3. Will the crew push on every hanger and write down any that move, with photos of each one?
4. If the gutter has guards, will the crew lift or remove them without bending the panels, and will they put them back square?
5. Does the company carry liability insurance, and can you have a certificate of insurance sent to you before the crew arrives?
6. If a section is loose or a fascia board is soft, will the crew describe the repair as a separate scope with its own price, instead of folding it into the cleaning?

The answers should be in writing, not just spoken on the phone. A written scope with photos and measurements is the document you can compare against the next company, and it is the document you will want if the gutter is still moving three weeks later.

If you find a section pulling away from the fascia while you are on the ladder, do not wait for the next rain to decide what to do. Get off the ladder, take a photo of the hanger and the gap, and call the office at (314) 220-2333 with the location on the house and roughly how far the gutter has moved.