Our Projects - Gutter Clearance In Godalming

Our regular client is a management company for this multiple occupancy building consisting of 6 to 8 units of flats in Godalming Surrey. We’ve been working with them for a few years and because of the leafy trees surrounding the building the gutters and flat roofs regularly attract debris that must be removed to avoid flow issues. Just to be clear that we haven’t used gutter vacuums to clear Gutters for a very long time, probably 12 years. The reason is that the gutter vacuums do a fine job of clearing the gutters but they are not particularly good at clearing the Swan necks of debris. the Swan necks are the union pieces that connects the gutter to the downpipes. Because of the staggered flow what usually happens is debris will collect in the Swan neck which will eventually turn into a blockage. I would say that on average I find one in five Swan necks blocked through throughout our work so if I were to do a clearance job and there were five downpipes I would expect at least one of them to be blocked on average. So if you employ a clearance company that uses a gutter vacuum, they are clearing the gutters but most likely not able to deal with the underlying issue of the overflowing gutters because they cannot clear the Swan neck correctly. I’m afraid there’s no alternative than to have two men on site with one person footing a ladder and the other person up close and personal to remove all the debris by hand. 

Now that’s all the gutters and flat roofs have been cleared of debris. This job will be fine for another six months before we need to return. I do get asked by clients exactly how long they should wait before contacting us again and it all depends on their situation. In an average situation the truth is that if you’re not experiencing any problems with your guttering system, then it should be fine to just getting cleared out every five years. However, if the property is plugged by falling leaves from nearby trees or potentially falling moss from a particularly mossy roof then the gutters would need to be addressed on a more regular basis. If one neglect to do so then the flow of the gutters may well be impaired which means potential running water down the exterior brickwork which will lead to more expensive problems.