Gutter Cleaning in Bearwood

Shared terrace runs that nobody feels responsible for

Bearwood is not a heavily wooded area, but the way it is built still generates plenty of gutter trouble. The continuous runs mean nobody feels responsible for a blockage, so it sits there through two or three autumns until somebody sees water sheeting down a rear wall. The high proportion of rented property compounds it, because a tenant has no reason to report a gurgling downpipe and a landlord is not there to hear it, so the first anybody knows is a damp patch in a back bedroom in February. On the fringes, the streets facing Lightwoods Park and Warley Woods do get real leaf fall from mature trees, which is a more conventional autumn problem than the rest of the area has.

• Continuous runs crossing several terraces, where each house’s length and downpipe still has to carry its own water
• Rear access only through a shared entry or through the hallway, which decides how the visit has to be booked
• Rented terraces where nobody reports a gurgling downpipe, so it surfaces as damp on a back bedroom wall months later
• Mature trees on the roads facing Lightwoods Park and Warley Woods, which is a straightforward autumn leaf load
• Landlords with two or three houses on one street, for whom clearing the whole run at once is the obvious purchase

Vacuum from the ground, silt out, downpipes flushed

Everything is cleared from the ground with a pole-mounted vacuum, so nothing is leaning on guttering that your neighbours depend on as much as you do. We take out silt and moss as well as leaves, because silt is what actually holds standing water in a shallow terrace run. Downpipes are then flushed to prove the whole length drains, including the one discharging into a gully in the back yard. Where the only route to the rear is through the house, we carry in and out with protection down. Anything cracked, sagging or pulling off the fascia is photographed and shown to you.

• Pole-mounted vacuum from ground level, with no ladder resting on a run shared with the houses either side
• Neighbouring lengths cleared in the same visit wherever the owners ask, so the row is done in one go
• Downpipes and rear gullies flushed, so we know the water is leaving the property rather than just the gutter
• Photographs of any damage found, which matters on a let terrace where the owner never sees the back of the house

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

Shared terrace runs and getting round the back

Most of this sits on the streets running back off Bearwood Road, and the job is often as much about coordination as cleaning. Where two or three neighbours want it, we do the whole row in one visit, which saves each of them arranging a separate day. The other constraint is the entry: gated ones need unlocking and the bins and bikes moving, and we would far rather rearrange than turn up and find we cannot get the equipment through. Over towards Lightwoods Park and Warley Woods the plots are more open and it becomes an ordinary autumn job.

One house or three on the same Bearwood run

A single two-storey Bearwood terrace on its own is a modest job with a modest price. Two things change it. If your length holds years of compacted silt rather than one autumn of leaves, it takes longer and the downpipe may need rodding as well as flushing. A landlord with several terraces on one street can have them quoted and done together on one booking.

Get a free, no-obligation quote

Yearly on most terraces, twice facing Lightwoods Park

Once a year for a standard Bearwood terrace, ideally in late autumn once the leaves are down but before the winter rain settles in. Twice a year only makes sense for the roads facing Lightwoods Park and Warley Woods, where mature trees genuinely shed onto the roof. Everywhere else, an annual clear in late autumn keeps a terrace run draining through the winter.