Flushing your gutter with water is a really cheap and easy way for you to clean your gutters and make sure they’re flowing properly…
The thing is, you can’t just go and flush a clogged gutter…
I know you had that idea that you’d blast all that muck out of your gutters but just wait until you read this…
If your gutters are blocked up, you would need to clear them before you do any flushing…
If your gutter looks like this…
Please don’t try to flush it out…
When you try to flush a clogged gutter, you’ll end up moving all of the debris towards the downpipe and block it up…
You’ll still need to get your gutters cleaned but now you’ll have the added problem of needing to unblock your downpipes…
There are certain times and situations for flushing gutters and that’s what we’re going to explore right now…
When would you flush a gutter?
There are 3 situations when it’s a great idea to start flushing gutters…
1. Just after you’ve cleared your gutters of leaves and debris…
This is the best time to flush your gutters…
You know they’re clear and flushing them won’t block your downspouts…
The reason you should be flushing gutters after clearing them is to make sure that they’re flowing properly and it also clears away any mud and muck that is still sitting in your gutters…
That’s how we get our gutters to look like this…
That’s our secret weapon…
Uhmm, please don’t tell anybody else…
That’s between you and me…
Ok, how about we move on to number 2?
2. Flush your gutters two months after a gutter clean to keep them clear…
Cleaning gutters can be a real pain in the you know what…
Even if you know the best way to clean gutters, it’s still much easier if you flush them out before they have a chance to get clogged up…
So that’s why, if you don’t want to clean your gutters again in 12 months, flush them out every second month…
This way, as the dirt and leaves start to build up, you’ll flush them out before they have a change to build up…
If you keep on top of flushing out your gutters, you may never have to get them cleaned again…
This is the best way to prevent clogged gutters…
A word of warning though…
If you have a ton of leaves that fall into your gutters, then you’ll need to flush them away from the downpipes and try to blast them out over the end of the gutter…
If you push the leaves towards the downspout, you’ll block them up and cause a bigger problem…
So promise me you won’t do that…
Flush away from the downspout…
And just know…
If you can’t blast all the leaves out, you’ll eventually have to get your gutters cleaned…
Ok, let’s move on to the next one…
3. When your gutters are clear but the down pipe is blocked, flush it out…
This is more of a down pipe flushing than a gutter flushing but this is the 3rd occasion when it’s a good idea to flush your gutters…
You see, if your down pipe looks like this…
You can easily clear it by flushing it out…
It’s as simple as using the jet setting on your everyday garden hose nozzle and blasting right into the top of the downpipe…
It’ll break up the hard dirt and flush it away…
If you’re worried about blocking the stormwater further down the line, then simply take this bracket off here…
And then slide the downpipe up and out of the down pipe adaptor…
The plastic fitting sticking out of the ground is the adapter…
Now when you flush your gutter and downpipe, it’ll flow onto the ground and won’t block up your underground pipes…
Easy does it…
Now you’re probably wondering what’s the best way to flush your gutters?
Well, that’s next up…
How to go about flushing a gutter…
Flushing your gutters is actually really easy…
You can either flush from walking around on the roof and spray them out, you can get an extension wand and flush them out from the ground or you can spray them out from a ladder…
My personal preference is to walk around on the roof and spray them out from the top but if you’re gonna do it this way, make sure you have the right ladder…
And definitely make sure you know how to set your ladder up so you can safely climb up and down…
Ok, now let me explain both methods…
Flushing gutters from the roof…
The way I do it is to get an extension wand like this…
This is great because it extends up to 2 metres so I don’t need to get right to the edge…
I can stand back where it’s safer…
And see the head on it?
You can turn it to any angle you want so you can get right under the roof line to flush the gutter properly…
This is exactly what you want…
The only other thing you’ll need for flushing your gutter is a long hose that has a kink rating of 10…
This is the hose that I personally use…
It’s 40 metres so you can reach any section on your roof…
And the kink rating is ten which means, while you’re on the roof, you’re not up there trying to unkink your hose…
Once you have water running through it, the kinks just pop out…
This is a great hose and I highly recommend it…
Once you’ve got your wand and your hose, you start at one end, walk around the perimeter of the roof and flush the gutters towards the downpipes…
But make sure you’re only flushing surface dirt…
If you have big build ups of dirt or any type of leaves and debris, you’ll want to clean your gutters first…
If you flush leaves and weeds into the downspout, you’ll block it up…
And if you manage to get it down, you could block up your stormwater pipes underground…
Then you’ll need to call a plumber…
Don’t do that…
Read my guide on “The Best Ways to Remove Leaves From Your Gutters” and then you can flush them out…
Sound good?
Ok, how about I show you how to flush your gutters from the ground?
Flushing gutters from the ground…
If you don’t like height, you can still flush your gutters…
You can flush them from the ground…
Check this out…
This is Charli and Charli doesn’t like heights…
So Charli just uses an extension wand and sprays them out from the ground…
There are 3 problems that people usually face when trying to flush your gutter from the ground…
The first is that they get wet…
To prevent yourself from getting wet, all you need to do is angle the head slightly forward instead of straight down and stand behind the spray…
The second problem is that as you look up at the gutter, the sun burns your eyes…
What you need to do is stand under the gutter instead of facing the gutter…
This is facing the gutter…
This is standing under the gutter…
Can you see the difference?
When you stand under the gutter, it blocks the sun…
The 3rd problem is trying to reach the gutters…
The wand that I use is great for your average single story house…
But the moment your land starts to slope or if you have a double story, you’ll need to get an extension wand that extends up to 6 metres…
So to avoid reaching issues, make sure you get an extension wand like this one that can reach up to a double story gutter…
Keep in mind that the higher you have to reach, the harder the wand is to control…
But if you stick with it, you’ll get the hang of it…
Ok, we’ve still got one more flushing method…
Flushing your gutter from a ladder…
All you need for this method is a ladder and your everyday garden hose and nozzle…
Then climb up there and flush out your gutters…
This is not actually the best way to flush out your gutters but it’s one of the best ways to unblock a downspout…
Just set your ladder right next to the offending downpipe and you might see something like this…
Now just spray right down into the top of the downspout and break up all of that dirt…
You’ll know the job is done once the water starts to flow out of your gutter…
And that’s about all there is to it…
In conclusion…
If you follow what I’ve so graciously laid out for you above, you’ll definitely have the most successful and thoroughly enjoyable gutter flushing experience of your life…
Make sure your gutters are clean before you flush your gutters and pay extra special attention to your downpipes…
In all honesty, this is not rocket science but it is easy to mess up and clog your downpipes…
So make sure you use these flushing methods to maintain clean gutters or to unblock a downpipe…
That’s it…
Go now and happy gutter flushing…
Before I go…
Unless you’re local to me, and need gutter cleaning around Mornington, I don’t have anything to sell you…
So if you’ve found value in my guide on Flushing a Gutter, all I ask is that you share this post on Facebook or leave me a comment below…
By doing this, it helps me spread my message across the internet to more wonderful and high quality human beings, much like yourself…
Thanks for sharing and caring…
That’s all from me today…
Peace,
Jason – The Gutter Cleaner Who Flushes Multiple Times a Day…
