I’m a new homeowner, and I need to clean my gutters for the first time. There’s one section leading to a downspout that looks particularly gnarly from the ground. Unfortunately, it’s on the corner of the house where the lines come in from the street, and it’s at the end of an 18"-wide, steeply angled section of roof that there’s no way in hell I’m climbing down.
Here’s a picture. The gutter section in question is on the right.
Are there particular lines that I should emphatically not touch with the ladder or my flesh? Am I better off just hiring a professional?
with the upper gutter you and the ladder are higher than the electrical wire, very dangerous and potentially fatal if you or the ladder fell. if you wanted to attempt it then you need to secure the ladder (wood or fiberglass) by having a person hang onto it with their body weight while you are up on it.
with the lower gutter your head and arm would be within reach and have possible accidental contact with the wire. you could from the side of the house get higher than the gutter height and use a hose with a small high pressure stream (you can get a short fixed hose nozzle with a 1/8 inch opening which will send leaves flying out of the gutter).
you could clean the top gutter from the roof climbing from the backside being roped off from the backside. or use the hose from the roof. that high pressure nozzle can clean 10 feet or more away so you only need a few spots to shoot from.
clean the gutters and put some anti-leaf device on the gutters.
We actually have gutter screens, but judging by the condition of the garage gutter, whoever put them in did a halfassed job, or hasn’t bothered with any maintenance cleaning. I pulled about 2 gallons of loamy crap out of that single 10 foot section, which is set even further back from the big buckeye tree at the front of the house.
Guess I’ll hire a pro to risk their neck and heart rhythm.
Right after I bought my house, I happened to stop by my insurance agent’s office to sign some papers. I mentioned that I had hired a couple of contractors to do some stuff (lay tile and hardwood floors to replace vinyl and carpet). My agent advised me: whenever you hire anyone to do any work on your house, ask them to give you a Certificate of Insurance. (Make sure they are licensed and bonded too.) I will not hire a contractor if they cannot provide one. I had to dismiss a tree removal guy because he wouldn’t give one up. I was not about to pay disability for him if he lopped his own arm off while cutting down a tree.
I presumed there were several reasons for this, relating to liability concerns for one. If they are licensed, bonded and insured and Something Terrible happens, the bills are on their employer, not you personally.
So any time you’re looking at hiring a pro to handle something above the first floor, or involving potential electrocution, IMO, this is not the time to be looking at your ex-wife’s first cousin’s brother-in-law who is unemployed and needs some handyman work. You may pay more for the service/repair/whatever, but at least if someone drives a nail through their foot with a nail gun or something, their lawyers won’t be coming after you, which would make your repair more expensive by orders of magnitude, depending on the injury.
I think another reason was to determine liability in the event of a payout. Let’s say you hire a “shade tree electrician” or your ex-wife’s first cousin’s brother-in-law. He does not electrocute himself and lives through the process of repairing whatever sparky thingy that broke. But he did a crap job, and it’s not up to code, and six months later, the house burns down due to a short. If you hired your ex-wife’s first cousin’s brother-in-law, you might not get your claim paid if the insurance company can determine that the shoddy work was performed by your ex-wife’s first cousin’s brother-in-law. If you hired a licensed, insured and bonded professional and they mucked up the job, your insurance company may still pay. State laws and individual policy exclusions not counted, YMMV, etc.
I can’t tell for sure if that is a phone line or the power drop. It looks like power. The phone line would not bother me at all. Stay away if it’s power. Ladders can move sideways sometimes. Have some help securing the ladder. Always good to have an assistant for such a high-wire act anyway. I’d be comfortable up their with a ladder and my experience. Temper that by staying three feet away.
Ask your power company to disconnect the supply while you do the cleaning. Even a professional should do that, judging from the proximity of the lines to the gutter.
It’s not clear to me that’s a power line. There is no meter box on that side of the house. If the house is older the meter could instead be in the basement. Look for it, that will give you a much better idea of what those wires may be.
If they aren’t your electrical I’d have very little concern working around them or touching them. Phone cable and fiber optic even if you chewed on them don’t pack much of a punch.
If they are your electrical I’d get someone more qualified.
I’d probably do it myself, but the (wooden) ladder would lie against the sill of the open window and be lashed at the top to something inside. I’d try to do the job with a broomhandle or length of PVC tube. Have someone inside hold on to you.
Quick question - are power lines into houses uninsulated in the US (where I’m presuming this is?)
wires have a weather coating which can crack overtime and not be counted on to have insulating properties.
the aerial wire in this photo, if electrical is triplex type, two coated hot conductors and a bare neutral. it is strung on a single insulator support, the coated wires twisted around the neutral wire ( which provides the physical support, it has steel strands in it).
another aerial power line style could be three separate wires which might be coated and each hung on a separate insulator. the insulation is provided by air separation between the conductors and the coating on the wires may deteriorate without the insulation being compromised.
This may be the best suggestion if you don’t hire a pro. And a properly insured pro would have to have a large payment to cover such a small job.
I once worked for a company that made electrical wire. We used any junk that failed all other specs for service entry wire. If it is your electrical service, pretend it is bare wire.
It looks to me like if you are careful and use your head, you can do it. Put the ladder off to the left a little, but not so far you will have to reach too far.
Looking at the picture(better you than me)it is way up there. But if you don’t have breakers tripping I would say your o.k. But… .Just cleaned mine(one story).
Opps. thought you wondered about wires touching the gutter(spark,spark) instead of getting fouled up in them.
I’m usually the one to throw caution to the wind and do stuff myself, but looking at that, I would definitely hire a pro. If you get shocked by that wire, the good news is that you won’t feel a thing. (Of course, if you have a family the smell of your roasting flesh might cause some emotional issues). I would look into rerouting that entrance wire if it’s not too expensive. If it is, I would let that small section fill up.
