Gutter cleaning cost in Victoria, BC

Leaves are not the problem here; needles are. Douglas fir and western red cedar shed all year, so a gutter cleaned in spring under a fir is filling again by summer. Moss adds to it: it grows on north slopes through the wet months and washes into the gutter and the downspout. That is why local companies talk about two or three cleanings a year under trees where a guide written for Ontario says one.

December is the wettest month in Victoria and the one in which a blocked gutter does its damage: overflow runs down the fascia and behind the soffit, and by the time it shows as peeling paint the board is soft. A late autumn cleaning, after the big maple leaves are down and before the December rain, is the one that matters most.

A standard clean is the inside of the gutter cleared by hand, the downspouts checked or flushed, and the debris taken away. Washing the outside face of the gutter, blowing debris off the roof and any repair are usually separate items, and one local company prices them that way on its site. If you are comparing two prices, check that both include the downspouts, because a clear gutter on a blocked downspout still overflows.

Local companies do not agree with each other, and all of them sell the service, so read this as a range. The common answers are once a year for a house with no trees nearby, twice for a house with some fir or cedar, and three or four times under heavy conifer cover of the kind found on many Saanich and Highlands lots. One company says a newer roof with no trees around it may need cleaning only every few years.

We found no recommendation from a neutral source specific to Greater Victoria. BC Housing and the Roofing Contractors Association of BC both tell owners to keep gutters and drains clear as part of roof maintenance in spring and fall, which matches the twice-a-year answer.

A single-storey house on level ground is a reasonable job for a careful owner. WorkSafeBC reports that about 485 British Columbians are hospitalized each year after falls from ladders and scaffolding, and its advice applies to anyone on a ladder: keep three points of contact, do not work from the top two rungs, set the ladder on a firm level surface with the top extending a metre above the landing, and stay at least a metre from the service line that runs to the house. It also says to avoid ladder work in bad weather.

Two storeys, a steep lot, or any gutter you would have to reach from the roof is work for someone with the equipment. Do not clean gutters from the roof edge, and do not pressure-wash shingles while you are there.

If a gutter overflows a week after it was cleaned, the problem is slope, a crushed section or a blocked underground drain. Local companies publish $150 to $350 to re-hang a sagging or wrongly sloped gutter and $350 to $800 to replace damaged sections. If several runs are sagging and the board behind them is soft, price replacement instead.