Home Improvement: Gutter cleaning

[timothy42b]

I hate this job, and my house is surrounded by trees. Gutter guards have barely helped, really they just make it harder to clean.

I had a brainstorm today, why not hinge the gutters? Flip them over, blast with a hose, done.

Google shows I'm not the first person to think of it.

http://flipcleanguttersystems.com/faqs/index.html

I wonder if I could retrofit at a reasonable cost.

[AndrewMeronek]

Sounds like a good idea, but I would suggest seeing them tested first. My biggest concern is weight: if the gutters get filled up with needles or ice or whatever, does that mass make them impossible to flip? Can a bird build a nest in a hinge? How can the locks on the hinges fail so that the gutters don't stay up?

[timothy42b]

I looked carefully at my gutters last night, and I see two potential problems.

One is that my house is long and narrow, which means a very long span to flip. If it doesn't flip exactly level I suspect the gutter weight might be enough to bend the gutter.

The other is more serious. My power lines are barely under the soffit, and there are a couple of other interferences from TV antennas. There doesn't look like enough clearance to tip these at those spots.

But it does seem like a really good idea for locations where it would work.

[StephenK]

Should gutters be level? Shouldn't they fall to the down pipe?

[ghmerrill]

I'd rethink the gutter guard solution. We're in a situation similar to you -- in the country and surrounded by tall oak, hickory, maple, pine, poplar, etc. trees (on about 6.5 acres). Gutter cleaning got to be really tedious. An initial approach with the sort of "mesh" gutter guards was pretty useless. Then we got guards that are solid-topped and install to overlap the roof/gutter gap. They don't clog. On the weird occasion that they somehow do (maybe twice over the past ten years on one of the gutters that got storm damaged?), the company will come out and clean out the gutters at no charge. Since we had these things installed, I just don't worry about the gutters any more. It's been worth every penny.

[2bobone]

I went with the wedge-shaped coarse foam inserts that allow for water to pass entirely through the foam and drain in a normal fashion. The reasoning is that nothing can fall into the gutters because they are already filled with the foam inserts. The foam is UV tolerant and has been in service for at least 15 years with no maintenance. At this point, minute particles have entered the foam and there are small plants that have taken root, so the inserts should be removed, power sprayed and replaced. Not bad for 15 years ! No tools, no drilling, no mechanisms. Recommended ! Bob

[Schlitz]

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[AndrewMeronek]

On the flip side, instead of gutters on the roof, you can install protective concrete or something like that on the ground surrounding your house so the roof drainage doesn't dissolve the soil around your basement walls.