GUTTER CLEANING????????

[Mowman]

Any of you guy's/gal's offer this service? If so how much do you charge? Doing my own I just get on the roof and use my hand-held blower and blow them out. Any advice on this matter will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mowman

[Cleve]

Only when I have to.
And I won't get on a steep roof or a really high one.
The least I charge would be $35 and most around $65. This assume the gutters will clean using the BP blower. I usually carry one of the hand held pick-up gadgets as it helps get sticks, etc from the gutter without having to bend over with the BP on.
Cleve....

By the way, there is a down-side to using a blower to clean gutters. It will push some material over the back of the gutter and some things like pinestraw will tend to collect there. Even enough to hang down from the back side of the gutter. Then you end up having to pry out the gutter on occasion to clean this out.

[1MajorTom]

found this thread on gutters:

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?threadid=6165


We do not go out and advertise this service to attract new customers. But if one of our elderly customers ask us to clean their gutters, it is easy money and we will not turn it away.

[Dennis]

I have offered this serv for several years,
If I do it for existing cust. it is $25.00 if non cust.
min is $35.00. I use BP blower

[Grassman]

I do this service for about a third of my cuctomers. Residentials are $50 for a single story and $80 fo a second. Commercial roofs are usually $100 unless their flat. We use the handhelds for roofs because BP's are hidderance to your balance. Russ

[GrassMaster]

Hello Everybody:

If it could be blown out only, we charged $25 mim. If it had to be dug out by hand $35 to $50 min.

If it was 2 story house blow out only, we charged $85 min. If it had to be dug out by hand a min. of $125 & we loved every one of them.

After getting burned on 3 different slate roofs & we only did 3 of them. We refused to do them. One of them they waited 2 years before they complained. We got paid on the spot but they called later saying their roof leaked. 1 of them we never got on the roof. We used ladders & neighbor talked & watched us the whole time, because he wanted to do his own. The neighbor saved us on that one.

Let somebody else do them. We knew what we were doing too! I went & talked to people that install them. They told us how to do them & we are sure there was no damage.

[kutnkru]

We offer this service late in the fall and before the frosts hit hard. Most roofs we can walk along the edge with a bp blower and then hose them out afterwards. For those roofs that cannot be done this way we use fiberglass ladders with stabilizers attatched and them just work our way along the edge accordingly. These gutters do not get washed out just the downspouts.

As far as marketing goes we always do this for cash so we think of things in multiples of dollar bills when pricing. The most productive way we have found is three man crews. One guy will cold canvas the neigborhood and put a big black "x" across a fert tag and then we know who to hit and who to skip. We average about 5 houses per hour this way and usually gross in excess of $250/hr. We try to charge right around the $50 mark and often wind up getting closer to $60. (they usually hand us three 20's and consider it money well spent)

Our pitch man will tell customers that we are from Pro Turf Landscaping and are in the neighborhood cleaning gutters for our clients today and that we are taking the time out for others that wish to take advantage of this services also. He then incorporates the risks associated into his 25 second speal:
>>falling off the roof
>>death by electrocution
>>interior damage caused by displaced shingle aggregate clogging the systems
>>etc etc etc


Sorry so winded,
Kris

[jeffex]

on steep roofs forget the ladder. use 10ft
sections of alum downpout with double 45s on end
duck tape seams. at the bottom attach a 45 elbow
with adapter that hooks up drain tube. the
rectangular end becomes round and you can put the
end of your blower in it and never get off the ground

[awm]

For regulars 15 for a 10 min blow out.
Others vary according to job

[VLM]

Kris, wow thanks for the inside scoop. I'm totally going to try this next fall. I had just been doing gutters for my customers, but your method sounds great. Do you ever pick up lawn contracts that way? I don't think we can get $50 for gutters down here though. Do you live near the city or is this the going rate?

[kutnkru]

We are wwaaayyyy up north of the city Syracuse/Binghamton areas. If I had to pick a number for what MOST people would consider the going rate I would have to say $40. However, most of the contractors are not flushing the gutters or downspouts either.

If they dont want them washed out we wont turn away the $40, but we do advise them that its kind of like changing the oil in their car without replacing the filter because the system just wont be working to its maximum potential.

The key I have found is like I have said before, you HAVE to get a guy/gal that once that door opens is exstatic to see the potential clients and CLOSES the deal in about 30 seconds. We always have our clients best interests at heart, and when the pitchman makes em believe it in 30 seconds that we're not scamming the hood, we make BIG money.

As far as the potential for increasing the customer base, definitely!!! Most guys are mow-trim-blow, theyre in-theyre out. When you constantly approach clients with badda bing mannerisms it eventually wears off on the people. And then when they meet us we talk WITH them and advise them of whats best for them NOT our wallets, they appreciate it.

We are trying to build partnerships with our clients not customers. Afterall, if you could help an associate out or FRIEND out - wouldnt you?? I would. And the same rules apply in our business. Our clients are our friends and we get involved in their personal lives and we never steer them wrong to make a profit.

Hope this helps.
Kris

[thelawnguy]

Do a search under "gutter" and under "scrub" and you will find plenty of info on the subject.

[kutnkru]

What are you inferring Bill??

LOL
Kris

[SummitFarmer]

Hey Kris
When you say "flush" their down-spouts, what do you mean? Are you talking taking a water hose and flooding them or do you use a blower and blow them out? I saw a report on our local news that talked about companies doing this in our area. They said that the companies were booked sometimes a month in advance and sometimes made close to $200 on a job. A little hard for me to believe on the charge but I can see being really busy this time of the year. Thanks

[kutnkru]

SF

We always flush them out! If we cant get a hose up there for whatever reason we take a 5gl pail up the ladder and flush em out.

One thing I should mention is most of these homes are single stories with gutters on front and backside only that we can walk along without a problem.

If they have four sided gutters we charge accordingly for that. We also charge more on top of that price for multiple gutter systems (one at the garage and then one above at the roof line the next story up or several stories up). The higher we go the steeper the price because they become more labor intensive.

Hope this clears things up a bit.

[bobbygedd]

dont get it, whats the relationship between gutter and scrub?

[1MajorTom]

Here you go Bobby, Here is a thread to help you understand
the full meaning of a gutter and a scrub.


http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?threadid=109

When we first started our business, we were confident that in the fall after the last leaves were on the ground, we would be cleaning lots of gutters. So when we obtained our insurance, we did delcare that we would be performing that service.

Turns out, we found that we were busy enough in the fall doing clean-ups that we didn't really want to be bothered with them. BUT, if one of our customers does need their gutters cleaned, we will do that.

Does that make us scrubs? Perceive it how you wish.

[CCLC]

We used to advertise for this service to get extra jobs but now we only do it for existing customers. We always charge by the hour. When we do it there is usually something else on site to do that makes it quite profitable.

[bobbygedd]

JODI, think u r getting it all wrong, i myself clean gutters if asked, although im not in the "gutter" business. i was just wondering y someone who cleans gutters is referred to as a scrub. i dont consider myself a scrub. we do "property maintenance", all out side work. the gutters r about where we draw the line though as far as coming in tontact with the house itself. went to thread u referred me to, and it seems someone had a big problem with being insured for cleaning gutters. my god, y is everyone so worried about being fully legit. i think, that if from day one, any of you were 100% legit, and satisfied every permit, local ordinance, paid every nickle in tax that u should, never accepted unclaimed cash, never paid anyone under the table, and so forth, u would be out of business. u tell me that when u cut your very first lawn u were fully insured, registered with the state, in compliance of every law, county ordinance, charged and paid sales tax, never pocketed cash, i dont believe you. BOB

[1MajorTom]

Bob,

I don't think people that clean gutters are scrubs. Clean-up of leaves and clean-up of gutters go hand in hand I think. Removal of a customers leaves from the ground and from above we do. We just don't advertise it to new customers.

As for the legitimate part, when we started out we made MANY mistakes. We constantly say, if we had lawnsite to look at in the beginning, we would have been awesome from the get go. BUT, the one thing we actually did was get all the paperwork right. We got our DBA, got our sales tax booklet, paid our $50.00, and yes, got insurance. I am very careful with everything when it comes to finances.

Yes, we made mistakes in the beginning, but we are proud to say were legit from day one.

[Grassman]

We always run a plumbers snake down the drains with a rag attached to the end to knock out any debri clumps before flushing out the downspouts. Forgot to mention in in my previos post. Russ

[thelawnguy]

Heres another thread: http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?threadid=1152

I cannot figure out the lawncare/gutter cleaning connection. Do I order a pizza from the electrician? Have the roofer clean out the cesspool?

[kutnkru]

is not what im looking to engage in.

However. I am just wondering if we dont do it for those customers that request us because we are "Full Service" contractors ,,, then who??

Who do you recommend your customers to Bill when they ask you about gutters??

Kris

[thelawnguy]

Originally posted by kutnkru
is not what im looking to engage in.
However. I am just wondering if we dont do it for those customers that request us because we are "Full Service" contractors ,,, then who??
Who do you recommend your customers to Bill when they ask you about gutters??

Kris

A little touchy on the subject, are we?

Well I did not have you in mind when I made my original post, but since you decided to stick your hand in the fire...

Since you are a Full Service Contractor I assume you also have a home improvement license? Then the scrub discussion should not apply, nor interest you.

When you purchased your WC coverage, did you happen to tell them that your employees "walk along the edge with a bp blower and then hose them out afterwards"? I would love to be a fly on the wall in your insurance agents office when God forbid an employee takes a spill off a roof some frosty November morning.

There are reasons WC is much more for roofers than landscapers.

Of course, if you do have the proper legitimate coverage then the scrub discussion should neither apply nor interest you.

To answer your question, I can count on both hands the number of times in the past 8 years someone has asked about gutter cleaning. My customers seem to know I am a professional lawn care company not a do it all handyman service.

When asked I refer them to

http://www.evercleargutterhelmet.com/
or
http://www.leafguard.com/index.cfm

I have customers with both on their homes and they are both excellent products.

Or I suggest they can look in the Bargain Hunter weekly paper and sift thru the work wanted ads.

[kutnkru]

To quote you about text not coming out the right way as verbage often does ,,, I was not trying to offend or get involved in the banter. (Poor wording on my part and for this - from one professional to another I sincerely appologize.)

I was however trying to find out when a customer addresses such a request to you, how you would recommend a solution to their needs. I was only asking because you had not stated an alternative to getting on the roofs.

Hope this clarifies and no offense was taken.
Kris

[VLM]

Actually he did, he said to "have the roofer clean out the cesspool"

I say if it pays you enough and you like to do it, then go for it. As for me, I'm trying Kris' system this fall. I'll let you all know if it works as well for me.