How is everyone eles doing so far?

[Tim Lynch]

I seem to be getting more and more gutter jobs in the last few weeks. I've had to pass up on a few just to high for me.

I have my first ad in the yellow pages and my customers are saying the large companies are not returning calls for cleaning even tho they say cleaning in there ads.

Good for me they also seem to like the fact I am a one person operation and not a big company.

No rain on the horizon here, Im hoping that the phone will really go crazy when a few good storms roll in. Is that what alot of you doing gutters find? It's my first year so Im still in the dark I know alot start calling for roof work when they start leaking thinking the gutter customers mite do the same?


DO you have two set's of charges? One for dry weather gutter cleaning and one for wet weather cleaning?

 

[hadishon]

No gutter jobs here yet. I've given some quotes and they said they will call after the leaves fall. I can't wait until they fall... I have a gutter cleaning flyer marketing plan that I'm eager to try out. All I'm waiting for is for the trees to look a little bare.

 

[CaroliProWash]

Anyone pushing solid gutter covers? We are trying it out...did our first job today and netted $498 in under 3 hours

 

[Larry L.]

After the gutter covers are on how long can they go without having the gutters cleaned?

 

[CaroliProWash]

From an experience level.....don't know yet. According to the mfg, the solid gutter covers will eliminate having to clean out leaves and other large debris. From what we've seen in gutters, it would still be a good idea to just rinse each year to wash out the tiny griggly stuff that comes from the shingles - that will still fit through the water holes. Our big push for the solid covers is not having to clean leaves, sticks, pine needles - the stuff that when wet gets heavy and pulls the gutters away from the house.

 

[paul-uk]

i think you missed the point roger ;-)

 

[Larry L.]

LOL,understand,a guy could put hisself out of business by not knowing .I can see where it could be a easy sale and guess a guy could say you never have to clean your gutters other then rinsing.Bit tho the covers would be a plain in the hindend if the inside of the gutters where full of wittle broken leaves,pine needles,ect.,ect..Are they easy remove if need be?

 

[Aplus]

I've been doing solid vinyl covers for two full years now. No problems with leaves, needles, debris. A little shingle sand gets in, but not much. Most will rinse right on down.

I tell my customers the gutters/covers should be inspected and/or cleaned if needed at the five year interval.

 

[CaroliProWash]

Thanks for the advise and input - we've only done the one job and we haven't told the customer that they'll never have to clean gutters again, only that it will retard the collection of heavy debris. The shingle sand would still need to be rinsed just for maintenance purposes and I'm thinking that you'd only need to remove a small section of cover to get the water flowing toward the downspout. Am I right, Tony? We also guarantee our work for the same 5 years that the mfg guarantees the covers.

 

[Larry L.]

I went and looked a house this morning and I noticed it had the gutter covers,black in color.I don't know when I'll get to the job,may be a few weeks but I'll ask her how long the covers have been on the gutters.Alot of big trees around the house,I'll look inside and let you know something.

 

[Tim Lynch]

3 jobs today one with gutter guards.

Well my first job today had brown gutter guards the type with small slits. What a pain in a** they were bending and loosing these little clips that went into these little slots to hold the guard into place. They were on for two years and no one had cleaned them since. The roof was done before the guards were put on. The roofers were nice enough to not cover the downs and I pulled out hunks of wood from the bottom of the downs. Her livingroom wall got flooded.

The gutter guards did real well on the side of the house without leafs. The side with the problem was clogged and nothing but muck in the gutters under the guards. And some **** head used hex head screws to hold these thin guards down. Five screws per 2 foot section. WOW!!! it took longer to take these out than if they never were on the gutters in the first place.


Some areas were punched down by roof rats and other rodents.

Let's end this with! I could have done this job in a half hour! But the guards having to be put back re-bended and stuffed under the roof again took longer.

What a waste of mula! I would have done the job for 50 bucks! without guards but she ended paying out 135.00. After two years of the guards being on.

Screw guards I say! you have to make sure they are right for the job otherwise they are a watse of money! The time it takes to remove and re-install old guards is more in the long run than putting them on in the first place.

Lets not even get into those metal screens similar to the black fiberglass ones. Just take them out and toss in the bucket!


Errrrrr I think you get the gist!!!! I hate gutter guards!

 

[Aplus]

Carolina,

That's right. only remove one every 20 feet or so, if needed to keep the sand moving as you rinse it towards the downspouts.

I got a call from a customer yesterday who's house I installed solid vinyl guards on last season. Seems the end was invaded by a couple sparrows. I always nip/bend the ends down, and lay a nice bead of latex caulk to hold it down nicely. The only thing I can think of is the birds had to have chewed or pecked thru the caulking.

I'm going to look at it tomorrow and make the repair. I'll post the results afterward.