Gutter Cleaning in Yardley Wood

Moss mats that hold water and pull brackets on a shaded run

Moss is the whole difference here. It sheds off tile and settles in the gutter as a mat, and once it is holding water the run sits heavy, brackets begin to pull and joints start to weep. On a house with a low rear gutter over paving you then get a permanent wet stripe on the slabs beneath, and that is the same paving already struggling to dry on the shaded side. Add the trees along the canal side feeding leaf into those same runs every autumn, and the shaded elevation ends up wanting attention on a shorter cycle than the front of an identical house.

• Moss establishing inside the gutter on the shaded runs, still holding water long after the leaf has gone
• Silt beds that make scooping pointless, because a run cleared that way blocks again within one season
• The tree line along the canal side feeding leaf into the rear runs every autumn
• Overflow from a low rear gutter keeping already shaded paving permanently wet underneath
• Stepped plots falling to the canal and the brook, where ladder footings are uneven at the back

Vacuum, flush and photograph, all from level ground

A pole-mounted vacuum reaching up to three storeys does the whole job from ground level, which suits these plots because nothing has to find a level ladder position. We lift out the moss mat and the silt bed as well as the leaf, then flush the run and the downpipe with water so you can see it clearing for yourself. While the camera is up there we photograph the condition of the run: sagging sections, pulled brackets, weeping joints and gaps opening between gutter and fascia, all of which a moss-loaded run develops sooner than a dry one.

• Moss mat and silt bed lifted out, not simply the loose leaf sitting on top of them
• Run and downpipe flushed afterwards, so drainage is demonstrated instead of assumed
• Worked entirely from ground level, the reliable approach on a plot that steps down at the rear
• Photographs of pulled brackets and weeping joints, which carrying wet moss brings on faster

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

Front runs and shaded runs

Late autumn is the main window, once the leaf along the canal side is properly down, and the shaded rear runs are the ones to get to first. The work spreads across the B14 streets around School Road and the roads towards the canal, then over the railway into the B28 side. Terraces on the municipal estate streets frequently share one continuous run, and clearing a single house out of six rarely fixes anything, so if you can speak to your neighbours we will quote the whole length as one job. All we need is access to the rear, and nobody has to be in. At roughly 22 minutes from Selly Oak, a slot within the week is usually possible outside the late autumn rush.

A moss-loaded rear run against a front run cleared last autumn

What you pay tracks three things: how long the run is, how high up it sits, and how much has collected in it. A semi done last autumn is quick. A shaded rear run carrying a moss mat plus several years of silt takes a good deal longer, and a first visit to a neglected property always costs more than the ones that follow it, which is better heard now than on the day. On the terrace streets a shared continuous run can be quoted as one length if the neighbours want it that way. We do no gutter repairs at all, so when we say a run has had its day, there is nothing in it for us.

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Front runs yearly in late autumn, shaded rear runs twice

Once a year for a front run, cleared in late autumn once the leaf is genuinely down, not in September while it is still on the trees. Twice a year for the shaded rear runs near the cutting, with the second visit in late spring, because moss grows to its own timetable and does not wait for the leaf. If a run is overflowing now, it wants doing now: standing water in a moss-loaded gutter is what pulls the brackets away from the fascia.