If your house is a single story on a flat lot with a composition shingle roof and clear ground around it, you can clean your own gutters with a good ladder and an hour. If it’s two stories, has a tile roof, sits on a slope, or the roof pitch is steep, hire it out. That’s the line, and it’s where people get hurt.
We’re a gutter cleaning company, so you’d expect us to say call a pro. But plenty of homes in Van Nuys, Reseda and the flat parts of the Valley are single-story ranches at nine or ten feet, and a careful homeowner can handle those. Most of the homes we clean aren’t that. Here’s how to tell which one yours is.
Where do homeowners actually get hurt?
Second stories. That’s the pattern. A homeowner in Granada Hills or Studio City with a two-story house borrows a 24 foot extension ladder, sets it on the driveway slope, leans it on the gutter, and reaches for the last foot of debris. The ladder kicks out at the base or slides on the gutter. A fall from 20 feet onto concrete is a serious injury at best.
Tile roofs are the other one. Someone climbs onto the tile to reach a valley, a tile cracks, their foot goes through or slides, and they’re on the ground. Almost every home in Santa Clarita and Thousand Oaks built since the 80s has a tile roof. Those aren’t DIY.
Hillside lots combine both problems. The uphill side of the house might be single-story and fine. The downhill side is two or three stories with the ladder base on a slope, or on a retaining wall, or over a pool.
What makes a house a DIY job?
Four things have to be true.
The gutters are on a single story, meaning the eave is around ten feet or less. The roof is composition shingle, not tile. The ground around the house is level and firm where the ladder goes. And it’s a calm, dry day.
If any one of those isn’t true, the risk goes up sharply. Two-story falls are the ones that end in the hospital. Tile roofs take experience to walk or to set a ladder against. Sloped lots mean an unstable ladder base. Wind moves a ladder while you’re on it.
What does a pro do that a homeowner can’t?
Mostly it’s the equipment and the repetition. We carry ladders in the right lengths, standoffs sized for different roof edges, levelers for sloped ground, and we set and move a ladder hundreds of times a month. We work in pairs. We bring a gutter vacuum to every job, which gets a gutter cleaner than hands can and keeps the debris off your walls and windows. We know how to reach a tile roof valley, and how to move on tile when we have to. We know what a downspout packed with pine needles feels like from the top and how to clear it without pulling the downspout apart.
We also see the things a homeowner doesn’t know to look for: a hanger pulling out, a seam that’s started to weep, a gutter run that’s lost its pitch, a downspout that’s disconnected at the underground drain. Signs your gutters need repair covers those.
If your house failed the test above, or you’d rather spend the Saturday on something else, call (818) 913-1626 Monday through Saturday 7am to 7pm or request an estimate. The membership plans are free to join and put the cleanings on a schedule, with a lower price per visit on the more frequent plans.
If your house passes the test, here’s how to do it safely
What ladder do I need?
For single-story gutters, a six or eight foot step ladder often reaches, and a step ladder is more stable than an extension ladder because it doesn’t lean on anything. Use one if it works.
If you need an extension ladder, get one rated for your weight plus tools with margin, and long enough that you never stand on the top three rungs. A 16 foot extension ladder for a ten foot eave is about right. Fiberglass if there’s any chance of contact with power lines. Check the service drop where the utility line comes into the house. It’s usually at the roof edge, right where you’ll be working.
How do I set the ladder?
The 4-to-1 rule. For every four feet up to where the ladder touches, the feet go one foot out. A ladder touching at 12 feet has its base three feet from the wall. Too steep and it tips backward. Too flat and the feet slide out.
The feet go on firm, level ground. Not on mulch, not on a wet lawn, not on a paver that rocks. If the ground slopes, use a ladder leveler on the downhill foot. Don’t stack anything under a foot to level it.
Never lean the ladder on the gutter. Gutters are thin aluminum hung on brackets. They dent, they pull off the fascia, and a ladder resting on a round gutter edge slides sideways. Use a standoff, which is a U-shaped bracket that attaches to the top of the ladder and rests on the roof surface or the wall, holding the ladder off the gutter. They’re cheap and they make the ladder more stable too.
On tile roofs, setting the standoff takes more care, because it’s resting on tile instead of shingle. That’s one of the reasons tile homes are a pro job.
How do I climb safely?
Three points of contact at all times. Two feet and a hand, or two hands and a foot. That means you don’t carry a bucket up the ladder in your hand. Hang it from a hook on a rung, or use a bucket with a ladder hook, or don’t use a bucket at all and drop the debris on a tarp below.
Keep your belt buckle between the rails. If you’re reaching past the side of the ladder, you’re overreaching, and that’s how ladders tip sideways. Climb down, move the ladder, climb up. It’s slow. Slow is the point. On a 100 foot run of gutter you’ll move the ladder ten to fifteen times.
Have someone on the ground. They hold the base, hand you tools, and call for help if something goes wrong. Don’t do this alone.
What do I actually do up there?
Wear gloves. Gutters have sharp screw points and edges, and after a summer in the sun the contents include whatever the birds and rats left.
Scoop out the debris by hand or with a plastic gutter scoop. Work away from the downspout so you don’t push material into it. Get down to the metal, including the grit at the bottom. Drop it on a tarp on the ground.
Skip the leaf blower. It empties the gutter onto your windows, walls and walkways, which is why we avoid one too.
When the run is clear, flush it with a hose from the far end and watch the downspout. If water comes out steadily, you’re done with that run. If it doesn’t, the downspout is blocked. Try flushing from the top with more pressure. If that doesn’t clear it, our downspout guide covers the next steps, including when the blockage is underground and out of reach.
What days should I not do this?
Not when it’s wet. Rungs, roofs, and the ground get slick. Not when it’s windy, and here that’s a real consideration from October into February when Santa Ana events push 30 to 50 mile per hour gusts through the Valley. A gust catches an extension ladder like a sail. Not when it’s over 100 degrees on the roof, which in the Valley is a lot of afternoons from June through September. Early morning, calm, and dry.
Don’t do it the day of a red flag warning either. The wildfire guide explains why gutters matter before those days, and the answer is to clean them the week before, not during.
When to call
Two stories, tile, steep, hillside, wind, or no helper. Any one of those, and we’ll take it from here: (818) 913-1626 or get an estimate. We work everywhere from the flat Valley to the canyons, and the full list is on our areas page.