Gutter Cleaning Service

If you are interested in hiring professionals to clean your gutters then the first place I would look would be to your friends, family, and neighbors. For this very important household chore, you want to make sure that the people you hire are reputable and will do a good job. Taking recommendations from friends means that they were satisfied with the work done on their home. Using this tactic will also allow you to price the job out without even making any calls. Sometimes people are afraid to ask for an estimate for work done on their home because then they feel obligated to hire that company. While it is not necessary to hire them after getting an estimate, asking a friend what they paid is a good way to get an early idea of what the cost will be.

After you have exhausted the people you know, I would turn to the internet. Unlike printed yellow pages, most internet directories will include reviews. You want to make sure you are reading independent reviews that were not chosen by the gutter cleaning company but rather published by actual customers. You can get a good idea if a company is worth hiring or not from the comments of past customers.

Once you have found the companies you are interested in (I would have a list of at least three), then you need to start thinking about how you will choose between them. When you make your initial call, you should ask about availability up front. There is nothing more frustrating than going through the bidding process only to find that the company you want to use is booked for the next three months or that they may not be able to do your job at all. After you are sure they are available, start asking what their pricing structure is based on. Do they charge by linear feet of gutter parts, square footage of the house, or some other means? Are there extra charges for two or three story homes? Any reputable gutter cleaning service will have a system that they use to quote business and anyone who is reluctant to tell you how they come up with their estimates or does not ask any questions about your home before giving a price is probably not a good choice.

After you are sure about the price, the next thing you should look into is whether or not the company is insured and bonded. The reason for this is because you want to make sure the company can pay for any damage that may be done to your home as a result of their actions. In addition, if any of their people are injured while performing work on your property you want to make sure they have worker's compensation insurance.

When you have professionals at your home to perform gutter cleaning tasks, it is a good idea to find out if there are any other chores they could help you out with. Many professional gutter cleaners also do window washing. Since they will have scaffolding or ladders on site for the gutter cleaning, they might as well clean your windows while they are at it. Windows really need to be cleaned about as often as your gutters if not more so there is a nice symbiosis. Some gutter services will also do things like power washing your siding or cleaning decks.

One necessary task that it typically not advertised, but can be negotiated by most gutter cleaners is the cleaning on any security or flood lights that you have mounted at your roof line. Outdoor lighting that uses incandescent or halogen bulbs might need a light bulb replaced. If nothing else, the fixture will need to be cleaned. If you have solar lights, then the solar collecting panel will need to be wiped clean so that the collector is as efficient as possible.