Most UK homes need their gutters cleared at least once a year, and many need it twice. The right answer for your house depends on nearby trees, the age of the roof and how exposed the property is. Here is how to judge it for a typical home in Shirley, Croydon and the surrounding parts of South East London.
For a standard house with no large trees close by, one clear a year is usually enough. The best time is late autumn, once most of the leaves are down, so the gutters run freely through the wet winter months.
If you have trees within about 10 metres of the roof, plan on two visits: one in late autumn and one in spring. Spring catches the blossom, seed pods and moss that come down between March and May, and gives you a chance to spot any damage from winter storms.
This part of South East London has a lot of mature street trees, particularly oak, lime and plane, and plenty of 1930s semis backing onto long gardens with established silver birch and sycamore. Lime trees in particular drop sticky sap and seeds through summer, and plane trees shed bark and seed balls well into winter. If your house sits near Shirley Park, Addington Hills or the tree lined roads around Wickham Road, expect to clear gutters more often than a newer estate would.
Roof type matters too. Concrete interlocking tiles on 1960s and 1970s homes tend to grow moss on the north facing side, and that moss washes into the gutter in clumps. Slate roofs shed less, but older cast iron gutters on Victorian terraces in nearby areas sag over time, creating low points where water and silt collect even when leaves are not the problem.
You do not always need to wait for the seasonal clear. A few checks from ground level during a heavy downpour will tell you a great deal.
Look for water spilling over the front edge, especially at corners and joints. Check for drips or a steady stream from the back of the gutter, which often means it has pulled away from the fascia. Green staining on render or brickwork below a gutter, or damp patches appearing inside on an upstairs wall, usually points to a blockage that has been there for months.
A proper gutter clean removes all debris by hand or with a vacuum system, flushes the run with water to confirm it drains, and checks that downpipes are clear right to the gully at ground level. It should also include a quick look at brackets, joints and the fascia behind, because a blocked gutter often hides a small repair that is cheap to fix now and expensive to fix later.
Costs vary with the size of the house, access and how bad the build up is. For a typical three bed semi in the Croydon area, expect somewhere in the region of £80 to £150 for a standard clear. A large detached house, a property with a conservatory blocking access, or gutters that have not been touched in several years will sit above that. Repairs such as rejoining a leaking section or replacing a bracket are usually quoted separately once the gutter has been cleared and inspected.
On a bungalow or a single storey extension, clearing gutters yourself is reasonable if you have a stable ladder, someone footing it and dry conditions. Scoop debris into a bucket rather than flushing it down the downpipe, as that just moves the blockage underground.
For two storey homes, anything above a conservatory, or where the ladder would sit on a sloping drive, it is worth paying for the job. Falls from ladders remain one of the most common causes of serious injury around the home in the UK, and the saving rarely justifies the risk.
Late autumn is the priority because it clears the leaf fall before winter rain. If you can only afford one visit a year, make it November or early December, and add a spring visit if you have trees close to the house.
No. Guards reduce large leaf build up but fine debris, moss and seeds still get through and collect underneath, so guarded gutters still need checking every year or two.
Yes. Water overflowing for a season or two can rot timber fascias and soffits, saturate brickwork, cause damp on internal walls and in older homes undermine the ground near the foundations.
Tell us about the job and we will get a quote back to you, most days the same day.