Never Use Leaf Blowers When Cleaning Gutters
Thinking of cleaning your gutters with a gutter leaf blower? Think again! As a team of professional gutter cleaners with years of experience, we’ve seen our fair share of problems with gutters and the homes they’re attached to. Some of these problems can be attributed to cleaning gutters with leaf blower attachments. Read on to learn more about how using leaf blowers to clean gutters can actually cause more harm than good.
Why shouldn’t you clean gutters with leaf blower appliances?
There are quite a few reasons why using a leaf blower to clean your gutters simply isn’t recommended by our team of expert gutter cleaners. Though they may seem like a convenient option, they definitely have their drawbacks.
A gutter blower doesn’t provide a quality gutter clean
The first reason is that using a leaf blower as opposed to other methods doesn’t yield the same quality results. They may blow the top layer of loose leaves out of the gutter, but they are unable to scrub away any tough moss, lichen and other build up or remove leaves that are stuck in crevices within the gutters.
This means that, even though a gutter clean has taken place, the gutter will build up again with debris in no time because the leftover material that the gutter leaf blower couldn’t remove will provide more opportunities for leaves, sticks and other bits and pieces to cling to as they fall into and make their way down the drain pipe system. You’ll be needing another gutter clean again in no time at all, especially if you live in an area with heavy leaf fall.
Leaf blowers blow debris into the eaves of the roof and leave a mess
The second and more important reason to avoid using a leaf blower gutter attachment to clean gutters is the fact that these machines tend to blow the built up leaves and other debris back into the eave space of the roof. This is the part of the roof that overhangs the walls of the building.
As well as this, we’ve noticed a common complaint from our customers is that gutter cleaning companies that use leaf blowers to clean gutters end up leaving a huge mess on the roof and around the yard. After using gutter blowers, the leaves and other debris is blown all over the place and not disposed of in a tidy way, like you would when using other gutter cleaning methods. Some of the leaf debris also blows into neighbouring yards and even onto the streets.
What are the risks of having leaf litter and debris stuck in the eaves of your home after cleaning gutters with leaf blower units?
As mentioned above, using a gutter blower attachment to clean gutters runs the risk of blowing the leaves and debris into the eaves of the roof. Think about it. What do you get when you have a lot of dry, flammable materials like leaves, twigs, grass and other bits and pieces stuck in a tight space inside a home? A fire hazard.
Not only that, additional health hazards may come up over time. Birds and other pests tend to use these built up areas as safety zones to hide and build nests in. These pests often carry diseases and the risks of allergies for residents and guests of the home. They may also attract predatory animals like snakes which can generally find a way to enter the home quite easily once they’ve made their way into the eaves. We don’t know about you, but we wouldn’t want any slithery friends coming in to pay us a surprise visit.
To combat these risks, you can check and clean out the eaves yourself, if you’re comfortable using a ladder and know how to access them. Otherwise you can hire a professional to do it but it can be costly, depending on the extent of the build up.
Why do some gutter cleaners use gutter blower machines with gutter blower attachment capabilities to clean gutters?
Gutter blowers and gutter blower attachments may seem like more convenient, simple gutter cleaning solutions, as opposed to getting your hands dirty with more traditional gutter cleaning methods.
In some cases, this may be true, however, the short-term benefits of using a gutter leaf blower definitely do not outweigh the long-term risks of ending up with leaf litter and other debris stuck under the eaves of your home.
To have your gutters cleaned the right way, give the team here at Box Gutter Cleaning a call on 1300 BOX GUTTER (1300 269 488) or get in touch via our website Contact page.