How often do gutters need cleaning?

Once a year in the open, more under maples and firs: how to tell when yours are due, and what a clogged gutter costs if you wait.

It depends almost entirely on the trees. Here is what we tell people on the estimate.

In the open

A house with no trees close by needs its gutters cleaned about once a year, best in late autumn. What lands in them is mostly shingle grit and the odd leaf blown in from down the street.

Under maples and oaks

Twice a year: once when the last leaves are down, usually late November, and once in spring after the seeds and catkins. Leaves mat together when they’re wet and make a dam at every outlet.

Under Douglas firs

Two or three times. Firs drop needles all year and most heavily in autumn, and the cones come down in spring. Needles are small enough to slip past cheap screens and pack into downspouts like felt. This is where micro-mesh guards pay for themselves.

Signs you’re due

Water spilling over the front of the gutter in a steady rain, a downspout that drips instead of running, plants growing in the gutter, or a line of dirt down the siding under one stretch. Any of these means water is going where it shouldn’t.