The first thing you might consider doing to rinsing the gutters off with a garden hose. You probably dripped and made a little bit of a mess when you were scooping so you should use the hose to wash the inside and outside of the gutter system as well as the siding. Once you have washed away any loose drips or pieces, you need to inspect your gutter to see if any scrubbing in necessary.

A gutter brush is a round brush similar to ones you might have used in high school chemistry to wash out test tubes, except bigger. The round brush will scrub the bottom and both sides of the gutter at the same time. When mold or mildew builds up it can be hard to get off without a little elbow grease. If you can still not remove the stains then you might consider some kind of heavy duty household cleaner. But be careful to test the cleaner on a small area of the gutter first to make sure that it does not discolor or damage your gutters. Once the inside of the gutter system is clean, you will rinse with the hose again.

Your next step is to turn to the outside of your gutters. Many people are so concerned with getting out the clogs that they overlook the fact that the outside of the gutters is dirty and stained as well. You can clean the outside of the gutters with a sponge or cloth. If something more intense is needed then a scrub brush can be used as well. Remember to follow the same rules about cleaning solutions and pay even closer attention because everybody can see the outside of your gutters. You will be amazed at how much better your home looks from the curb with clean gutters.

First, you can make a pretty serviceable tool from an empty milk or juice container. You can reference my previous post for information on how to do this. You can also use any kind of powder scoop. You just want to make sure that the scoop has the right width. Gutter scoops are made in sizes that correspond to common gutter sizes so that the scoop is exactly the right size to fit into the gutter and scoop out all of the debris without having to do multiple passes. If you substitute other kinds of scoop then you will have to measure your gutters and the scoop to make sure it will fit and that you can collect a majority of the debris with one scooping action in each section.

Garden trowels are another alternative. The only problem with this kind of tool is that they usually do not have high sides like a gutter scoop and most of the things you dislodge with your scooping action will fall off the trowel before you can get it to the trash bag or collecting container you are using. This will slow you down considerably because you will have to pick up the same material over and over again. Secondly, you run the risk of dropping things off the trowel after you have left the gutter and dripping wet leaves and dirt down the side of you house.

If none of the tools you find in your home or shed seem to be quite right, then you can always use your hands. If you decide to clean out your gutters by hand then there are a few safety considerations. You do not want to touch the gutter debris with your bare hands so you must wear gloves. Any nitrile or latex glove will do. You just want to make sure that you will not come in direct contact with the possible bacteria or mold that might be growing in your gutters. Make sure the gloves extend past your wrist and when you put them on, try to pull them over your long sleeved shirt so that no skin is exposed.

First, rotting leaves and other tree debris can be breeding grounds for bacteria of several different varieties as well as mold. Touching possible mold contamination with your bare hands is not a good idea because a majority of the population suffers from some kind of mold allergy. The effects can range from a slight irritation of the throat to death. Even if you wear gloves you risk inadvertent exposure. By distancing yourself form the debris with a long handled gutter scoop, you minimize your chances of mold exposure.

Second, gutter cleaning can be a little bit messy. When you pick up piles of wet debris with your hands, material seeps out between your fingers and from others areas of your fist. As you move that hand from the gutter to the garbage bag you brought up the ladder, you could be dripping dirty water and debris onto your siding. A scoop with high sides will make sure that material does not fall out in the short amount of time it takes to go from the gutter to the trash bag.

Finally, using a gutter tool like the scoop will make the gutter cleaning go much faster. A piece of equipment can pick up significantly more material with every scoop than your hands can. In addition, the long handle allows you to clean a larger section of gutter system before having to climb down and move the ladder. That step is clearly the most time consuming. All in all gutter scoops are a good way to protect yourself, the cleanliness of your siding, and the amount of time you need to spend cleaning your gutters.

If you want to make your own gutter scoop then you probably have or will have all the things you need in your house right now. The first thing you will need is an empty plastic bottle such as a milk jug. You will also need a pair of scissors and a pen. If you wait a few days an empty container is bound to show up and I think that pretty much everyone has a pen and a pair of scissors in their home.

It is important to remember to keep the lid of the container. If you throw away the lid then there will be a hole at the end of the scoop where you intend the debris to settle. That would make the tool unusable. Your next step is to orient the bottle so that you can hold it by the handle and it is on its side. You want to handle on the upper most side. This means that the bottle will be oriented so that the bottom of the bottle is facing you in a diamond shape. Once you have the right orientation you need to start making your cut lines.

Start at the bottom corner and draw a V up to the two middle corners. You will now have a V on the former bottom of the milk jug. Remember that the top corner is the same side of the container as the handle. Next, put a dot somewhere between the bottom of the handle and that last unmarked corner. Finally connect the dot to the two middle corners. The lines will go down the former sides of the milk jug. If you cut along these lines, you will get a perfectly serviceable gutter scoop. So you can make a gutter scoop for at virtually no cost to you.

Gutter scoops are just as they sound. They are tools for scooping out the debris. They usually have high sides so that their capacity is as great as possible. The more debris you get with every scooping action, the faster the chore will go. For the same reason they are usually quite long. The picture to the right shows a good example of a gutter scoop.

Another attribute is that they often have long handles. The reason for the long handle is that cleaning your gutter takes place on a ladder. Therefore, you can only reach so far before you have to climb down and move the ladder. The longer the handle, the larger the section of gutter you can clean before getting down. This will also help shorten the time you will spend on this necessary household task. Moving the ladder is often the most time consuming step.

These tools can be purchased at a large home improvement warehouse like Home Depot or Lowes, or maybe even your local hardware store. However, you do not have to buy something called a gutter scoop specifically. Any large scoop will do. A garden trowel, a large spoon, or even an empty milk jug with one side cut out can serve as serviceable gutter scoops. The only rules are that the tool be able to scoop out debris and be easy to handle.

You do not necessarily need the fancy gutter brushes, scoops, or wands to clean your gutters, but there are a few essential items. First you will need a ladder. You have to be able to reach your gutters in order to clean them. The other essential items include a pair of gloves and a trash bag. You have to have somewhere to put the debris once you clean it out, hence the trash bag. And you want to protect yourself when you are handling the mold and mildew covered leaves in the gutters, hence the gloves. You can use your own two hands to scoop out the debris. Once you clear the big pieces your gutter should work well enough until you can get back up there with a brush or a garden hose.

If you do not have a ladder, which is the hardest essential to come by then you do have one other alternative tool that you can use – the telephone. Call a gutter cleaning service to get the job done. However, keep in mind that it will probably take them as long to get to your job as it will for you to get your own gutter cleaning tools and do the job yourself.

The main reason that you want the water and the hose is so you can test your gutter system. Once you think you have all the debris cleared out of the gutter, you need to test it to make sure that you do not have any more clogs, especially in the downspouts. Start at one end of your gutter system and start running water. Check to make sure that the slope of your gutters is steep enough so that no pools of water form. You want constant movement toward the downspout with no accumulation. The next thing you will check for is that the water flow continues out the bottom of the downspout at the same rate that it is going in. If the water only trickles out or stops coming out all together, then you know you have a clog somewhere.

If you do have the spray nozzle, your hose can be an even bigger help when it comes to cleaning you gutters. You can use the hose to dislodge debris and clogs. A regular garden hose under normal household pressure and a jet setting on your nozzle will have enough force to loosen almost any leaf clog in your gutters. You can also use the water to clear the gutter system of debris. Use the water stream to lift and throw the leaves and twigs out of your gutters. Then once the big stuff is gone you can use the pressure of your hose to clean off the mildew and muck that forms on the bottom of the gutter trough. Because gutters are usually made of aluminum or other lightweight materials, you cannot use a pressure washer to clean them as you would siding or other surfaces. The pressure from your hose is perfect.

You need to be careful when using your hose to clean your gutters though. Handling the hose up on a ladder can be tricky and you need to make sure that you always keep at least one hand on the ladder and do not lean. Make sure that the dangling hose is not caught on your feet or in your way when you are climbing up and down. A technique that I use is to tie the hose nozzle to my belt while I climb and make sure the hose stays on the outside of the ladder. Another safety precaution to keep in mind is that your ladder rungs will get slippery when they get wet. Anytime you bring water into the equation, the danger level of any home improvement task goes up. Be extra careful of your footing and hang on tight when climbing down a wet ladder.

The Looj comes with a belt clip holder. You clip the holster to your belt and carry the robot up the ladder in the holster. No hands are required. Then lifting the robot by the handle, you place it in your gutter. The handle then detaches and is used as the remote control. You has a control for the direction of movement – either forward or backward, a control for the direction of the spinning auger – you need to change the direction when you change the direction of movement, and an on and off switch. As the auger spins, it dislodges, lifts, and tosses the debris right out of the gutter system. When you have finished cleaning a section you just need to reattach the handle, put the Looj back in the holster and climb down the ladder.

Some advantages of the Looj over traditional gutter cleaning are that it is fast, safe, and inexpensive. You can use the Looj robot to clean a sixty foot section of gutter in just ten minutes. If you had to clean that section by hand, you would need to get on and off the ladder several times and it would take you much more than ten minutes. It is also safe. No more over reaching and risking falling off a ladder with this product. In addition, there is no need for you to come into contact with the mold and mildew inside the gutters. The Looj will do the scrubbing for you.

The Looj operates on a rechargeable battery. You can get about an hour of operation for every fifteen hours it charges. That is more than enough to clean the gutter on an average sized house that has about 200 linear feet of gutter system. The large rubber tracks can handle moving over downspouts with no problem. It is small enough to fit under gutter straps. In addition, it is waterproof up to one foot of water, which means that you can operate it when there is a small amount of standing water in the gutters and you can hose it off when you are done to clean it. Finally, the auger is a replaceable part. So when you wear one out, you do not need to replace the entire machine, only that part.

Overall, the iRobot Looj is an extremely helpful tool that is available for a reasonable price. You can get the basic 125 model for $129.99 from iRobot. Some retailers have them on sale occasionally. The 235 model comes with a hard case for storage and retails for $149.99. The 155 model comes with the hard case and a second battery. That way, you can always have a back up if your house in extremely large or you start with a battery that is not fully charged. The 155 retails for $169.99. You would pay as much if not more for a professional gutter cleaning service every year so I think the iRobot Looj is well worth the investment.

The only downside to gutter cleaning tools like this is the fact that the Looj throws the debris out of the gutters and down the side of your house and into your yard. After the Looj does its work, you need to go around your yard cleaning up all the debris and possibly even washing off your siding. That is why I think it is best to use the Looj when the weather has been dry for a few days so only dry debris will be flung out and that will not stick to the side of your house and can be left in the yard to decompose on its own.

A gutter wand is an attachment that you put at the end of a garden hose or pressure washer that usually has a hook shape to it. That allows you to stand below and the wand can reach up and over the edge of your gutter system. At the end of the U is a nozzle that directs the water stream in a jet. The ones designed to use with a power washer just concentrate the flow into a single jet of water but the ones designed for use with a garden hose actually help concentrate the flow so that the output is at higher pressure than it is going into the hose. The high pressure water stream will loosen any debris, dirt, mold, and mildew that might be adhering to the inside of your gutters.

The fast that the water comes out so hard can be a downside if there is too much splash over. Sometimes the stream is so pressurized that instead of having the water flow to the downspouts in a controlled manner, the dirt and debris come splashing over the sides of the gutters and make a mess on your siding or other façade. It takes some practice to get the positioning just right so that you avoid this situation.

Some gutter wands are short and only extend a few feet from the hose outlet or pressure washer hose outlet. These short gutter cleaning tools are best used with a hose rather than a pressure washer because it is hard to get a pressure washer with you up a ladder. Others have multiple telescoping pieces that allow you to work on the ground next to the pressure washer and reach second story gutter systems.

You can purchase scoops and brushes with long handles or even extensions so that you can reach up to four or five feet away without having to lean at all. The set to the left has three extension pieces that can let you reach up to eight feet. That means that you can keep your body close to the ladder and your center of gravity directly beneath your core. That is the key to maintaining your balance. If you feel balanced and stable, you will be less frightened of the height.

An added benefit is that you do not have to move the ladder as often. The most time consuming step of gutter cleaning is the time it takes you to climb down the ladder, move it a few feet down the side of the house and climb back up. If you can only clean one or two feet on either side of the ladder at a time then you will have to move the ladder two or three times more than you would if you could reach four or five feet. The long handles gutter cleaning tools save you time.