Gutter Cleaning in Aston

Back-addition runs in shade, with too little fall

Aston’s terraces carry a back addition, the narrower wing behind the main house, and its gutter sits lower, in shade, with less fall than the front. Moss and grit sliding off the main roof end up in it. On the estates, the council blocks have long shared runs with several outlets, and a single blocked hopper can send water down an entire elevation or a stairwell wall. Around Aston Hall and the parish church, inside the conservation area, nothing should lean against a frontage at all.

• Back-addition gutters behind the terraces, shaded and slow to drain, collecting whatever slides off the main roof
• Overflow that is hard to see from indoors, so the first sign is often a damp upstairs wall on the rear elevation
• Shared runs on the council blocks, where one blocked hopper can send water down a stairwell
• Streets close to Villa Park, where a home fixture leaves nowhere to park a van for most of the day
• Houses in the Aston Hall and Church conservation area, where nothing may rest against original brick or joinery

Hose through the entry, pole vacuum from the yard

The van parks as close as the street allows and the vacuum hose runs through the entry into the back yard, so every metre of gutter is cleared from the ground by a pole-mounted vacuum. Nobody climbs onto a back-addition roof and no ladder touches a frontage. Once the run is empty of silt, moss and grit, we put water through each downpipe and watch it arrive at the gully at the foot, because a clean gutter over a choked pipe still spills. Anything cracked, sagging or pulling off the fascia is photographed for the owner.

• Vacuum hose run through the entry to the rear, so the back-addition gutter is cleared from the yard
• Water put through each downpipe until it runs clear at the gully, proving the pipe as well as the gutter
• Nothing leaning on the building, which matters most on the frontages near Aston Hall
• Before and after photographs sent to an owner who is not on site

More detail on the equipment and the order of work: our gutter cleaning method.

Fixture dates, rear entries and the Aston Hall streets

The terrace work sits on the streets off Witton Road, Trinity Road and Aston Lane, with block runs on the estates towards Nechells. Villa Park decides the calendar: on a home fixture the roads around the ground leave no practical parking, so Aston gutter work is booked ahead onto set days chosen away from the published fixture list. The rear entries decide the day itself. A gated entry needs unlocking, and bins and bikes need moving, which on a let property is a conversation the owner is better placed to have with the tenant.

A modest height, a short run, and the packed silt that adds time

A two-storey Aston terrace is priced on a modest height and a short run. The figure rises when the back-addition gutter holds several winters of packed silt, since that takes longer and the downpipe may need rodding. Council blocks are priced per building, on run length, height and the number of outlets. Owners with several terraces on one street, or an agent covering neighbouring blocks, can have the whole group quoted together. We carry out no gutter repairs, so nothing we report is something we then sell you.

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Late autumn once a year, and a spring visit on shaded runs

Once a year suits most Aston terraces, in late autumn after the leaf fall and before the heavy winter rain. A shaded back-addition run that gathers moss can justify a second visit in spring. For the blocks, two visits a year written into the maintenance plan cost a managing agent less than a reactive call after water has run down a stairwell.