Table of Contents
- How Much Should You Expect To Pay For Gutter Cleaning?
- Factor 1: Gutter Cleaning Price By How Much Length Of Gutters You Have Around Your House & How High?
- Factor 2: Do You Have Gutter Guards Or Gutter Covering That Requires Removing In Order To Clean The Inside Of The Gutters?
- Factor 3: How Long Have You Last Clean The Gutters?
- Why These Factors Matter In Finding The True Cost Of Gutter Cleaning?
- The Two Gutter Cleaning Pricing You Will Encounter (Fixed & Non Fixed Gutter Cleaning Prices)?
- On-Going Maintenance – Quarterly & Bi-annual Gutter Cleaning Prices
- How To Get The Best Pricing For Your Gutter Cleaning
- Wrapping It All Up
Looking for more information on rain gutter cleaning costs?
If your gutters are filled up and you can see plants growing out of them, it’s probably time to take quick action.
Before you hire just any company to clean your gutters, let’s do some homework to see how much it would cost to get your gutters cleaned out.
By the end of this article, you’ll have just as good of a basic knowledge about how gutter cleaning is priced as any company that provides the service.
It’ll serve you in the future as well if you ever move to a different home, these basic concepts and understanding will guide you.
How Much Should You Expect To Pay For Gutter Cleaning?
Right off the bat, we’ll say that most of the time, the pricing for gutter cleaning depends mainly on how many linear feet of gutters you have.
The more linear ft of gutters you have, the more it will cost to clean.
If you are hiring a professional gutter cleaning service, expect it to be anywhere from $200 – $576 average.
These are just the base average gutter cleaning cost for a two story 2,000 – 3,500 sq ft home.
There are, however, many other factors that can contribute to the price of cleaning your gutters. These factors can slightly increase the price.
You may think. “Hey it’s just cleaning out the gutters… There isn’t anything special going on, why can’t the price just be fixed?”
While fixed pricing for rain gutter cleaning is very common in certain cases, not all homes are built equally. Plus, there are challenges, addons to gutters, and conditions we have to take into consideration.
It’s very important to understand these various factors so that the price you pay matches your expectations of the level of service you will receive.
The last thing you want is a company doing a poor job, or they find out the scope of work will be 10x and have to change up the price on you. It’s not the best scenario to be in.
If you’ve ever paid less for something and ended up short, then we want to avoid that feeling. More important is to know exactly what you paid for and ending up with a little more. We want that for all our audiences and clients.
With haste, let’s dig deep into these factors and let you see what goes into the price you pay to clean your gutters.
Factor 1: Gutter Cleaning Price By How Much Length Of Gutters You Have Around Your House & How High?
How much gutter you have is measured in linear feet. Gutters can be quite long and go all around your house from the third story, to the second story, and all the way down to the first story.
The more feet of gutters you have, the more that needs to be cleaned. Which in turn, the more it’ll cost you more.
Here is a quick chart to show you the average linear feet that a house would have based on its size.
Now we understand that you may not have a gutter that goes all around your house. Many homes have only gutters at the front and back of the house.
We highly recommend you look at your house to determine if you have gutters all around the house or just front and back.
The next piece of information you’ll need is how tall or how high your home is.
Is it a one story?
Is it two stories?
Is it three stories?
Etc…
For all property owners and homeowners, If you know the linear feet and the stories of your home, you can simply let the service provider know from the start, and they can give you an almost exact rough estimate over the phone.
It’ll cut out and save time for both parties so that we can discuss the further details to create a customer tailored solution for you.
Here is a pricing chart for the cost of gutter cleaning based on linear ft and the stories.
An Easy Way To Measure Features Around Your House:
If you don’t know where to start on gathering basic measurements, here is a quick video showing you how to measure using your phone, computer, or tablet.
We use Google Earth to get all sorts of measurements.
Factor 2: Do You Have Gutter Guards Or Gutter Covering That Requires Removing In Order To Clean The Inside Of The Gutters?
Down below you can see two charts of pricing for cleaning gutters with gutter guards.
Why are there two pricing charts?
When it comes to cleaning gutters with gutter guards, it adds a bit of complexity to the cleaning.
That is because to do a deep cleaning of the gutters with gutter guards, we have to remove the gutter guards/covering and then carefully reinstall the guards back without bending the guards.
But if you look at the second chart, there is also an option to NOT remove the gutter guard and reinstall them.
Why is that?
It is for clients who don’t have much debris in the gutters in the first place.
Or
They’ve already done deep cleaning before, and there isn’t much debris accumulated.
But how would we know if the gutter guards have a lot of debris in them or if they are clean?
Determining If You Need A Deep Cleaning or A Simple Cleaning
How do you know which pricing option is best for you?
Here are some critical things to look for if your gutters with gutter guards do have debris in them.
Key Indicator Of Debris:
- Looking out from your second story room window to see if the first story gutters are full.
- Noticing that there are plants growing out of your gutters.
- Water not flowing out of your downspout when it rains.
- Water overflowing out of the gutter channels.
- Your house is surrounded by trees. The more trees, the more likely your gutters are filled up.
- No trees, but you have a shingle roof.
- You’ve not cleaned the gutters for 2+ years.
- Flying a drone up and taking photos/videos of your gutter’s current condition.
Key Indicators Of No Debris:
- Looking from the second story window, you don’t see debris accumulated in your gutters.
- No plants growing out of your gutters.
- Water flows out of your downspout.
- No overflowing of water.
- Not surrounded by many trees.
- You have a metal roof.
- You’ve cleaned your gutters recently 1 year or less.
- Flying up a drone and taking photos/videos of your gutter’s current condition.
These indicators work for gutters with and without gutter guards. Use these indicators to determine the level of service you’d like based on the charts above.
The Issue With Gutter Guards & Why It Increases The Price:
The Issues:
Were you sold gutter guards and promised that you’d never have to worry about debris and cleaning your gutters ever again?
We hate to say it, but most gutter guards do not prevent debris from getting through your gutters.
We have proof too:
The belief that you don’t have to clean your gutters is misleading many people to neglect maintenance. In turn your gutters deteriorate over time.
From the photo you can see clearly that rust is forming inside of the gutters.
For that particular client we also discovered holes in certain areas of the gutters due to the rust. The client now has to spend money on replacing all the gutters around the house.
The cost to maintain gutters with gutter guards may cost a bit more, but it beats having to spend $3000+ on replacing your entire gutter system.
Not to mention, there may also be damage to the roof and foundation which adds additional thousands out from your pocket.
To repair foundation it could cost up to $8000+ and a roof another $6,000 – $10,000. And not to mention you’ll have to deal with your insurance. Rejection of your claims due to negligence can mean spending more out of your own pocket.
Gutter cleaning is quite inexpensive to avoid thousands of dollars and headaches you’ll have to deal with.
This is why gutter guards add a whole lot more complexity to everyone and all parties.
Our team has cleaned a lot of gutters for years and you wouldn’t believe how many of our clients do have gutter guards, but yet, they still need to invest their hard earned money in having their gutter cleaned.
And we come out quite often too.
Gutter guards do not do what they promise, and we’ll never provide or recommend you with something we do not believe will benefit you.
The Price Increase If You Have Gutter Guards:
To stay on topic, cleaning out gutters with gutter guards will certainly cost a bit more.
And here’s why.
When it comes to cleaning gutters with gutter guards, the price includes:
- Uninstalling the guards/covers to properly clean the inside of the gutters.
- Cleaning the inside thoroughly throughout the channel. Unclogging downspouts.
- Then after cleaning thoroughly, we take detailed before and after photos so you can see and know the exact condition your gutters are in.
- We carefully reinstall the gutter guards/covering onto the gutters.
Uninstalling and reinstalling them is not a fun task either, especially for all you D.I.Yers.
We’d have to be delicate to not bend them out of shape. Bending gutter guards will leave small entry pockets where animals can crawl through. Larger debris can also enter the small openings caused by out of shape gutter guards when reinstalling.
One sure way you can get the best prices on gutter cleaning is to opt for not removing the gutter guards. Rather we would just clean what is on top of the gutters and run water through the fine mesh of the gutter guards to rinse out as much as we can. This does not guarantee 100% that the interior will be clean, but it will clear what is accumulated at the top of the gutters and some of the inside with water.
If you are confident in your investment in gutter guards doing what they promise to do, you should not have to worry about cleaning the inside of the gutter guards. It will help you save a bit more.
Factor 3: How Long Have You Last Clean The Gutters?
To understand the scope of work and level of care that needs to be performed, it is best to know the condition your gutters are in.
Gutters that have never been cleaned in 3 to 5+ years will most likely have more than just debris in them. They will have an entire root system capable of growing plants and various weeds in your gutter system.
These roots can grow in some of the most difficult areas to clean and may also be growing in places you can’t see. One particular area is in your downspouts. Roots growing in the downspouts complicates things as it prevents water from exiting.
If water can’t exit it’ll back up into your roof and overflow out into areas you don’t want.
Gutters that have been neglected will also hold so much weight therefore the amount of debris will be significant to manage and dispose of.
What is the price difference between gutters that haven’t been cleaned in 3 to 5+ years compared to gutters that have been cleaned yearly?
The answer is that the price would be more accurately based on an hourly rate or a fixed rate that would have a disclaimer to let the client know the price can change due to underquoting the scope of work.
It is only fair for the company and the client.
Keeping the fixed price, when it is much lower than the scope of work, may not be in the interest of both parties as corners may be cut to meet performance from the technicians.
If the hourly rate is the case, then what would that hourly rate be?
For most exterior cleaning companies it would be $100/hr on the low end and $125 per hour on the higher end per technician.
Scenario Where Only 1 technician Is Performing The Work:
So let’s say you have 200 linear ft of gutters on a two story house that has not been cleaned in 5+ years. To remove debris, remove roots, and clear out the downspout throughout the house. It will take one technician 5 hours to complete. That would be $542.25 – $676.56 tax included.
Scenario Where 2 Technicians Are Performing The Work:
At most companies, you’ll see that they opt for 2 technicians. The reason for this is for safety and quality. Handling heavy and tall ladders may need two people. The dynamic of two people is that one is usually a Lead Technician who holds the responsibility to get the job done right and on time while the technician helps the Lead Tech to speed the project and ensure it gets done properly.
So if a team of two technicians that hourly rate would be $200 – $250 to clean the same gutters and get it done in 2 and hours, your total would be $433 – $541.25 tax included.
What if the gutter has gutter guards?
It wouldn’t change the hourly rate. The price is then subject to be determined based on the time it takes to complete the project.
There are pros and cons to the hourly rate. It is best to choose a company that can give you an option to go for hourly or a fixed rate that can be changed if the scope of work is greater.
Hourly Seems Unfair, What If Technicians Take Longer On Purpose?
That’s a good question.
It is definitely one of the cons to hourly rate.
A good company will have proper incentive for technicians to complete the job as quickly as they can. They’ll have a performance rating to base the employee on similar jobs and reward or call out on.
It can touch on an ethical standpoint. Trust and honesty is huge and proper photos and documentation can be reviewed with the customer to discuss the scope of the project.
But there is also a positive side to the hourly rate. Say the fixed price was $575, but it took the team only an hour to complete. You would end up paying more. Whereas hourly, it would determine that you’d pay significantly less.
Why These Factors Matter In Finding The True Cost Of Gutter Cleaning?
Cleaning your gutters is important and you want the job to be done right. If the gutters aren’t cleaned correctly, you risk the potential of:
- Water leaking into the membrane of your roof causing wood root. Replacing a roof’s foundation will cost a lot of money.
- Water overflows into your home’s foundation. This will cause the soil around your house to soften and change over time. When the landscape around what your house is built on is shifting, you may end up with structural damage and potential collapse of your entire house.
- Water overflowing and flooding your basement.
- Not cleaning your gutters properly can cause the gutters to bend out of shape and not work properly.
It is important that you discuss these factors as details about your gutters so that you get the proper cleaning done.
The Two Gutter Cleaning Pricing You Will Encounter (Fixed & Non Fixed Gutter Cleaning Prices)?
The two common pricing structure you will discover when it comes to pricing for gutter cleaning are Fixed Prices & Non Fixed Prices.
There are companies that want to gain as much details to give you a proper price to get the job done right.
And there are companies that combine both depending on the certain type of conditions and challenges.
Here are the pros and cons for Fixed Price Gutter Cleaning:
Fixed Price Gutter Cleaning:
- This gives customers the confidence and reliability that the cost to clean the gutter will always be the same as before. No hidden cost, you know exactly what you will be paying each and every time.
- Saves the company and the customer time from having to do deep inspections before getting a price.
- Quick for a company to give pricing to similar homes.
Cons Of Fixed Price Gutter Cleaning:
- Does not give the company room to change price if they encounter challenges such as heavy roots grown in the gutters taking up more time to properly clean. If the price is fixed, you can expect that the cleaning will not be done to your level of satisfaction.
- Fixed pricing can lead to miscommunication about additional services included such as repairing broken gutters.
- Fixed pricing can cause the company to lose and be unprofitable in jobs with lots of challenges. Every home is different and every situation is different. Unprofitable work can lead a company to end the service, change pricing model, or go out of business.
Non-Fixed Gutter Cleaning Prices:
- Allows both parties to be fair and understand the exact condition of the gutters and what must be done to the customer’s full satisfaction.
- Encourage a fully customized solution to the customer’s needs. Can work with the customer’s budget and be transparent about what is and is not included by both parties.
- Accuracy of pricing will allow the company to discuss accurate upkeep pricing for regular cleaning.
- With accurate pricing, the company is able to stay profitable and in business to continue serving the client.
Non-Fixed Gutter Cleaning Prices:
- May take a bit more time investment from both parties to get a price for the customer. There will be more back and forth to understand the customer’s unique situation.
- The price isn’t fixed and prices may be higher than another company that has fixed pricing.
On-Going Maintenance – Quarterly & Bi-annual Gutter Cleaning Prices
Now that you know about factors that can determine the price for gutter cleaning, we want to take a look at prices for regular cleaning.
We’ve just discussed how long ago have you gotten your gutters cleaned and what the prices would look like in those cases.
How often you get your gutters cleaned also has its pricing options as well.
Most companies will offer clients the option to do an On-Going Maintenance Cleaning Plan for their gutter cleaning.
The options are often Quarterly or Bi-Annual Gutter Cleaning Plans.
What is the pricing difference between the two?
When it comes to On-Going prices for gutter cleaning you have two options.
You can prepay for the entire service for the year or pay per visit.
The pricing will most likely be based on linear ft and stories of the building. We no longer need to take into consideration gutter guards, or how long ago have you had the gutter cleaned as the maintenance clean is after you’ve already gotten a deep cleaning of the gutters.
For Prepaying Services How Does It Look?
So let’s say you have a 2 story house with 150 linear ft of gutters. From our pricing chart above, it would come out to be $349.99 Per Visit.
If you Prepaid for the entire year it would come out to be: $1,399.96 tax included. However, oftentimes when you prepay, you will get a discount. How much of a discount you get depends on the company and how they have their prepaid discount structured. Let’s say it is 20% off if you prepaid. That would be $1,119.97. You’d save $278.04.
With prepaid, you also are pricelocked into that price. Whether the company increases its prices on gutter cleaning, they will not bill you for any additional.
You’ve already prepaid and committed. The benefit of prepaid is that you pay for it and forget it. If you’re someone who’s super busy and would forget, having everything scheduled and paid for ahead of time will put your gutter cleaning maintenance on autopilot.
The bad side to prepaid may be that you can’t cancel and there is no refund. Say you find out your gutters are clean and nothing is in them. There is no cancellation.
Pay Per Visit How Does It Look?
The other option is to pay per visit. There may be a slight discount, but it depends. It won’t be a great discount as if you had Prepaid.
With this payment option, you may end up paying different prices per visit, depending on the agreement.
The benefits with paying per visit is you can cancel at any time and aren’t committed. It can be very beneficial if you find out your gutters may not need cleaning that often, or let the provider know you won’t need them at this time.
With On-Going Gutter Cleaning Prices, it is very dependent on agreements and contracts you have with your service provider.
It basically comes down to what works best for you. Both give you freedom and control in different ways. With the options it allows you to choose the best option that fits your needs.
How To Get The Best Pricing For Your Gutter Cleaning
Let’s go over some key ways you can make sure the price of your gutter cleaning is always the best bang for your bucks.
Key 1: Go On A Maintenance Plan After Deep Cleanings
Whether you have gutter guards or your gutters have been recently cleaned after years of neglect.
Going on a maintenance plan will save you much more money.
Deep cleaning is always considered to be a lot more than maintenance clean.
Take a look at this Scenario:
If you have gutters with gutter guards and you have just recently gotten it cleaned. The maintenance clean will be much less as you know that there is not much debris inside of the gutters.
Therefore you don’t need a deep cleaning where the gutter guards are removed and reinstalled.
On top of this you also get discounted pricing on prepaying for the entire year or a lesser discount per visit on a maintenance contract.
It will be a much better pricing in the long run and you don’t have to worry about your gutter ever getting that bad again.
Key 2: Clean The Easier Parts Of The Gutters Yourself & Get A Company To Clean The More Difficult Areas
If you like doing things yourself, you can always clean the easy parts of your gutters. You can leave the rest to a company.
Say you have 250 linear ft of gutters. You clean 100 ft of it. The other 150 is all you need to pay for.
Key 3: Know About Your Gutters
- Know the linear ft that you have in gutters.
- Know the stories of your house.
- How long ago did you have it cleaned?
- Do you have any gutter guards or covering?
Knowing these will let you give the best information to the provider to give you the best price.
Wrapping It All Up
When it comes to pricing, you want to get good prices, but also make sure that the price matches up with the service you will receive.
If there is only one cleaning service that can help prevent damages and repairs the most, it would have to be gutter cleaning.
It’s a trade off, would you pay $200 – $600 to save $30,000?
A clean gutter will save you thousands in replacement and repair damages to your property.
It is also paying for the peace of mind.
We hope this in depth article will help you make the best decision when it comes to investing into the type of care you’d like for your home.
If you haven’t checked out other articles on Pricing and Cost. Here are articles on:
- How Much Does Roof Cleaning Cost?
- How Much Does Soft Washing House Cost?
- How Much Does Pressure Washing Flat Surfaces Cost?
- How Much Does It Cost To Clean Windows?
We want to help and be transparent, so our audience and clients can have ultimate confidence in purchasing exterior cleaning services.
Benjamin Nguyen is the owner of Full Color Cleaners LLC and won numerous awards for being one of the top window cleaning and pressure washing companies in Austin TX via numerous top websites like Yelp, Expertise, Fresh Chalk, Yellow Pages, Super Pages, and many more. Benjamin is also a specialist in soft washing, roof washing, window cleaning, and pressure washing with continious certificates of training every year. Benjamin is also a specialist in Christmas Lights Installation in Austin TX.
As a member of CLIPA, Pressure Washing Schools, and F9 Authorize Handler, Benjamin has an extensive knowledge on chemicals to treat and clean various surfaces. He also understands how premium quality Christmas Lights works. And lastly he is a specialist when it comes to pressure washing and soft washing.
Benjamin is also part of a Home Service Business Coaching (HSBC) Program founded by David James Moerman. Through David James Moerman’s coaching, Benjamin is able to build and develop his company as one of the Top Rated Window Cleaning & Pressure Washing companies in Austin TX. With David’s help from HSBC Full Color Cleaners is able to deliver a unique and premium service to its customers. David James Moerman as Benjamin Nguyen’s Coach also runs a successful pressure washing and window cleaning comapny in Surrey BC.
David Moerman’s Endorsement Of Benjamin Nguyen:
David MoermanDavid Moerman
· 1stFirst degree connection
CEO at Home Service Business CoachCEO at Home Service Business Coach
November 25, 2021, Benjamin was David’s clientNovember 25, 2021, Benjamin was David’s client
I’ve had the pleasure this past year to coach Ben to grow and systematize his exterior washing business, Full Color Cleaners. Ben really cares about his clients as evidenced by him being the top rated company in his area. He has a bright future because of how much he cares about his clients. I can’t wait to see him build a team around him to create an even bigger impact. Keep up the work Ben. You are an inspiration to so many about how to build a business from the ground up!
– Coach Dave
Benjamin Nguyen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-nguyen-769826205/
Full Color Cleaners Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/fullcolorcleaners/
Full Color Cleaners Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FullColorCleaners
Full Color Cleaners Yelp:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/full-color-cleaners-austin
Full Color Cleaners Indeed:
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Full-Color-Cleaners
Benjamin Nguyen Contact Info:
benjamin@fullcolorcleaners.com
512-883-2807
fullcolorcleaners.com