Why Gympie gutters need watching
A heavy wet season
February averages 168.9 mm and January 160.1 mm, with March close behind. A gutter half full of leaves going into January has no chance of keeping up.
Ex-cyclone downpours
When the remnants of Cyclone Seth came through in January 2022, hills north-west of town recorded 400 to 674 mm. Even without a flood, rain like that overruns any gutter with partly blocked outlets.
The flood months
Most of Gympie's floods come between December and April. River water isn't a gutter problem, but the days of heavy rain before a flood are, and that's when a clear gutter earns its keep.
Nearly every home is a house
At the 2021 Census, 91.2% of occupied homes in the Gympie Regional council area were separate houses. That usually means verandah, shed and carport gutters as well as the main roof, all with outlets to keep clear.
Old gutters on older homes
On an older house, find out what the gutters are made of before anyone touches them. ASSEA lists asbestos cement gutters among old roofing products, so if yours look like fibre cement rather than metal, leave them for a professional.
A Gympie gutter routine
Clean in late spring
Book it for October or November, before December's rain. Gutters, valleys, downpipes and verandah gutters all done in one visit.
Watch the first big storm
From under cover, look for water spilling over the front of the gutter or out at the corners. Those are the spots to mention to a roofer.
Check after big rain events
After an ex-cyclone downpour or any rain heavy enough to close local roads, walk around once it's dry and make sure every downpipe is running.
Top up in autumn
If trees drop leaves on the roof, a second clean once the wet season is over stops them compacting through winter.
What you can do, and what to hand over
You can
- Clear a low, single-storey gutter from a ladder on firm, level ground, with someone holding it
- Watch for overflow points from under cover in heavy rain
- Flush downpipes from the bottom where there's a cleaning eye
- Keep branches trimmed back where you can reach from the ground
Leave to a roofer
- Two-storey gutters, or anything above sloping ground
- Valleys and box gutters that can only be reached from the roof
- Old gutters that might be asbestos cement
- Fixing sagging, rusted or leaking runs
Questions for a Gympie gutter cleaner
- Do you test that the downpipes run freely, or just scoop the gutters?
- Will you do the verandah, shed and carport gutters too?
- If the house has flooded, will you flush silt out of the downpipes?
- What do you do if you find a rusted or sagging section?
- Can I see photos of the gutters from before you started?
Our advice before summer
We'd book the clean for October or November every year, and if the gutters are full again within a few months, we'd look at guards rather than paying for more cleans. After any big rain, we'd walk around in the dry and check every downpipe outlet. The basics are on our national gutter cleaning page, and the Gympie roofing page covers local weather.
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.