Expand Your Services To Gutter Cleaning

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Have you thought about adding gutter cleaning to your services? This is a seasonal service that many lawn care companies and window cleaning companies offer as a way to keep their businesses running in the winter. You may not make a ton of money from gutter cleaning, but this could be something you do during your downtime in the winter. The tips below will help you learn more about gutter cleaning so you can potentially use it for your business.

Why Gutters Need To Be Cleaned

Not cleaning the gutters could do significant damage to a home, aside from making it look messy and unkempt. Common problems associated with clogged gutters include:

  • Cracked Foundations – Caused by water runoff from the roof building up near the base of the house
  • Leaking Basements – Brought on by excess water trapped at the home’s foundation
  • Rotten Wood – Coming from water that wicks off the debris in the gutter and goes up onto the trim
  • Animal Infestations – Resulting from ponds of water that form in dips in gutter debris, which can act as drinking holes or breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other insects
  • Broken Gutters – Caused by constant weight in the guttering system

Gutters are needed to direct water away from a home to prevent other problems from happening in the future. By encouraging your current clients to clean out their gutters you can effectively save them from costly home repairs later on.

When To Offer Gutter Cleaning Services

Ideally, gutters should be cleaned twice a year: once before the fall and once before the spring. At the beginning of fall, the leaves are still dry and easy to pull out. As rain, snow, and other precipitation starts to form, it could wash the leaves into the downspouts and clog the gutters.

Cleaning the gutters right before spring will help them work more efficiently during heavy rain. Some houses may require spot cleaning at other times in the year, but the main season is right before and right after autumn. Luckily, this is the time of year when window cleaning clients start to slow down, so you can pick up extra work while your income starts to slow.

How To Clean Gutters

Gutter cleaning is a fairly simple process. If you have a power washer, you can use that to blast out most of the debris caught in the gutters. This will not always work though, especially on older gutters. They may be too flimsy to stand up to the pressure of the water. You can try turning the pressure down or even using a garden hose with a nozzle attachment, but sometimes it’s best to do the cleanout by hand.

If you cannot use the pressure washer to clean out the gutters, you will need to wear gloves to pull the leaves, twigs, and other elements out by hand. Older gutters or gutters that have not been cleaned out in a while may take more work to clean because of their built-up debris. You will need to increase your pricing accordingly.

What To Charge For Gutter Cleaning

In terms of what you can expect to earn from gutter cleaning, that will depend on several factors: the size of the gutters, the amount of debris they have in them, the number of turns the guttering makes (difficult to clean out), etc. To get an idea for how much you should bid on gutter cleaning, see how long it takes you to clean out the gutters for your own home. Use that timeframe as a guideline for your pricing and base your estimates on the amount of time you expect to spend on the project. If you need special equipment to work on a job, like a waterpole with a powerful jet nozzle, you can up your price accordingly.

Is Gutter Cleaning Right For You?

Gutter cleaning may not be the ideal add-on for your window cleaning business, but it could also be a big profit opportunity that you have been missing out on. If you work mostly for commercial clients that keep you busy in the fall and winter, you may not have time to add gutter cleaning to your services. You may also need to find new clients just to clean the gutters for, which may not be worth the hassle. If, however, you have mostly residential window cleaning clients, this could give you another way to make money in the slow season. You could extend your services to your existing clients and make the most of your opportunities.

As long as you have a ladder, gloves, a power washer, and some free time, you could use gutter cleaning to supplement your income this winter. Think about your options and determine if this is the right move for your business.