Gutter cleaning prices in the Los Angeles area come down to about eight things: how many stories, how many linear feet of gutter, the roof pitch and material, how much debris is in there, whether guards have to be lifted, how many downspouts need flushing, how hard the house is to get a ladder around, and any add-ons like brightening. Once you know how your house scores on each, you can guess where your estimate will land relative to your neighbor’s.
The fastest way to get a real number is still to ask for an estimate. But if you want to understand the number before you get it, here’s what goes into it.
What are we actually pricing?
A gutter cleaning is labor and risk. There’s no expensive material. The price is a function of how long the job takes and how dangerous it is. Every factor below either adds time, adds risk, or both.
How the gutter gets cleaned matters too. We use a gutter vacuum wherever it can be used, and clean by hand on smaller single-story homes. We prefer not to use blowers, which leave the debris on your windows, walls and walkways.
How much does the number of stories matter?
More than anything else. A single-story ranch in Van Nuys with gutters at nine feet can be cleaned off a short ladder or a step ladder, moving fast along the run. A two-story home needs an extension ladder set at the right angle, repositioned every eight to ten feet, with someone working at twenty feet or more. Each move takes time, and the work at height is slower because it has to be.
Split-levels and hillside homes count as two-story or worse. A house in Topanga Canyon that’s one story from the street can be three stories on the downhill side, with the ladder footing on a slope.
How are linear feet counted?
Every foot of gutter is a foot that gets cleared, and every foot of the roof edge is a foot the ladder has to reach. A compact two-bedroom might have 100 feet of gutter. A large single-story with a wrapped roofline and a detached garage can have 300. Newer tract homes in Valencia and Stevenson Ranch often have complex rooflines with many short runs, inside corners and multiple downspouts, which take longer per foot than one long straight run.
If you want a quick estimate of your own footage, walk the perimeter of the house and add up the sides that have gutter. Don’t forget the garage, patio covers with gutters, and any second-story runs that don’t line up with the first.
That total is the most you’d be charged for, and often it’s less. We charge for the gutter that needs cleaning, not for the size of the house. If your home has 200 feet of gutter and only 75 feet are dirty, you pay for the 75 feet.
Does the roof type change the price?
Yes, in two ways.
Roof pitch first. A low-slope roof can sometimes be walked, which lets a technician clear the gutter from above and move faster. A steep roof can’t. Everything is done from the ladder.
Then material. Composition shingle is easy to walk when it’s dry and the pitch is reasonable. Concrete and clay tile take more care. We prefer not to walk tile or rest a ladder on the tile edge when we can avoid it, and working around it takes longer. Tile also has valleys that trap leaves above the gutter line, and that debris has to be cleared by hand or it washes into the gutter with the first rain and undoes the cleaning. Most of the Santa Clarita Valley and Conejo Valley is tile.
How much does the debris load matter?
A gutter with a light layer of dust and a few leaves takes a minute per section. A gutter with two years of oak leaves compacted into a wet, rooted mat, with a small tree growing out of the downspout, takes many times that. Debris load is where an oak-canopy lot in Calabasas separates from a treeless lot in Panorama City.
The kind of debris matters too. Pine needles and eucalyptus bark are slow. They pack into downspout elbows and have to be worked out. Palm fronds are fast to remove but heavy. Roof grit is slow because it has to be scooped out rather than lifted.
This is also the factor you control. A gutter cleaned twice a year is never a heavy job. A gutter cleaned every three years always is. That’s why the membership plans are priced the way they are: more frequent visits are lighter work, so they cost less per cleaning.
What if I have gutter guards?
Guards change the job from a cleaning to a maintenance visit. Screen and mesh guards need the surface cleared, the valleys and corners checked, and any spots where fine debris has built up underneath addressed. Some guard styles have to be unclipped and lifted to get at the trough beneath, then re-seated, which takes longer than an open gutter. Reverse-curve guards can’t be lifted at all, and clearing them means working the nose of each section.
So guards can go either way on price. A well-installed mesh guard on a lot with big leaves makes the visit faster. A cheap plastic snap-in guard that’s collapsed into the gutter makes it slower, because now we’re cleaning the gutter and dealing with the guard. Our guard guide covers which types hold up.
Are downspouts included?
Downspout clearing should be part of any real cleaning, and we include a flush of every downspout. What adds cost is a downspout that’s actually blocked, which needs to be worked from the top, from the bottom, and sometimes disassembled at an elbow. Homes with underground drains running to the curb add another layer, since a clog can be below grade where a flush from the roof won’t reach. Our downspout guide explains how those get cleared and what it looks like when the problem is underground.
What does access do to the price?
The ladder has to go somewhere. A flat lot with a clear perimeter is fast. A hillside lot where one side of the house sits over a slope, a retaining wall, or a pool, means ladder work from awkward positions, standoff arms, or in some cases roof access from another side. Dense landscaping against the house, low power lines, and tight side yards all slow the job. Older homes in North Hollywood with mature hedges planted right against the eaves are a common example.
What are the add-ons?
Gutter brightening, which is the exterior cleaning of the gutter face to remove the black streaks and tiger stripes that form from overflow and oxidation, is a separate service and priced separately. It’s cosmetic. The gutters work the same either way. But it’s the difference between gutters that look ten years old and gutters that look new.
Minor repairs found during a cleaning, like resetting a downspout strap or re-screwing a loose hanger, are usually small. Anything bigger, like replacing a section or a re-pitch, is priced on its own. Signs your gutters need repair covers what we’re looking for.
How to estimate where your house falls
Score your house on each line and you’ll know whether you’re at the low, middle or high end for your size.
| Factor | Lower cost | Higher cost |
|---|---|---|
| Stories | Single story, flat lot | Two story, split level, hillside |
| Linear feet | Under 150 | Over 250 |
| Roof | Low pitch comp shingle | Steep tile with long valleys |
| Debris | Cleaned within the year, light trees | Multiple seasons, oak, pine or eucalyptus |
| Guards | None, or clean mesh | Guards that must be lifted or are damaged |
| Downspouts | All draining, few of them | Blocked, many, or tied to underground drains |
| Access | Open perimeter, no obstacles | Slopes, pools, hedges, power lines |
| Add-ons | Cleaning only | Brightening, repairs |
A single-story comp-shingle home with light trees and clear access is the floor. A two-story tile home under oaks on a hillside with underground drains is the ceiling. Most houses are somewhere in between, and the two factors that move the needle most are stories and debris.
What to expect
We don’t publish price ranges, because the number swings too much from one house to the next. What we can give you is the floor. Our minimum for a gutter cleaning is $150. On a small single-story home with light debris, that sometimes covers the whole job. A two-story tile home under oaks will cost more. Either way, you’re charged for the feet of gutter that need cleaning, not for every foot on the house.
That’s for a one-time cleaning. Members on a recurring plan pay less per visit, and the more frequent the plan, the lower that number gets. Joining is free.
The number that matters is the one for your house. Call (818) 913-1626, Monday through Saturday 7am to 7pm, or request an estimate and we’ll get you a real figure. We can usually estimate from satellite and 3D map views of your roof, so nobody needs to come out first. Commercial and HOA properties are priced differently, and you can read about that on our commercial page.