Adelaide's gutter calendar
Autumn, ahead of the wet months
At the airport, June averages 77.7 mm and July 71.1 mm, the two wettest months of the year. Gutters that filled with leaves and grit over a dry summer overflow with the first real rain, so autumn is the time to clear them.
Late spring, ahead of fire season
The Cudlee Creek fire started on 20 December 2019. The NSW Rural Fire Service advises clearing leaves from roofs, valleys and gutters before the bushfire season, and in the Hills that means a clean in November or early December, not after.
After hail or a big wind
The October 2021 storms brought hail, rain and strong winds to Elizabeth, Salisbury, Craigmore, the Hills and the Barossa. After a night like that, gutters fill with ice, leaves and bits of broken roof, so a check is worth booking.
More often under trees
Monier recommends cleaning gutters, downpipes and valleys at least once a year, and twice in tree-lined areas. Leafy streets on the plains and most of the Hills fall into that second group.
Old cement roof? Don't scoop the gutters
If your roof is old corrugated cement sheeting rather than metal, the gutters underneath will likely hold asbestos debris, which ASSEA says should be treated as friable (the kind that releases fibres easily). Don't clean them yourself, and don't use run-off from that roof in a drinking water tank. Read is my roof asbestos?
Doing it yourself, safely
You can
- Scoop single-storey gutters from a stable ladder on firm ground, with someone holding it, if you're comfortable at height
- Move the ladder often rather than leaning out to reach
- Flush downpipes with a hose from the ground to check they drain
- Wear gloves: gutters hide sharp edges and broken glass
Leave to a roofer
- Two-storey gutters, and any gutter you can only reach from the roof
- Box gutters and valleys
- Gutters under a roof that might be asbestos cement
- Blocked downpipes a hose won't shift
Questions worth asking
- Is downpipe flushing included, or extra?
- Will you take the waste away, or leave it in my green bin?
- Will you send photos of the gutters before and after?
- Will you tell me about any rust, loose brackets or broken tiles you spot?
- Are you insured for working at height?
If it were our gutters
Book the autumn clean every year and treat it as a cheap roof check: ask for photos and a note of anything that looks wrong. In the Hills, add a late-spring clean before fire season. If you find yourself paying for more than two cleans a year, price gutter guards against it.
Want a roofer to take a look?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match it with a Find My Roofer certified roofer who specialises in that kind of work, and they call you to quote. Your number goes to them alone.
Booking a clean
Tell us your suburb and whether it's single or double storey. We'll send the job to one licence-checked local roofer or gutter cleaner where we have one for your street, and if we don't, we'll say so. Our national gutter cleaning page and the Adelaide hub have more.