Cleaning out the Gutters
2005.12.31
I called Nate today and we took his car to Lowes so I could buy an extension ladder. I’ve used that rack on his car for hauling home improvement supplies more than he’s used it to haul his kayak or bike. I bought a 16-foot fiberglass ladder, and the extension bars to hold it off the vinyl siding.
Nate didn’t seem too interested in helping me with this project, strangely enough, so he took off. I got up on the ladder to see what the gutters looked like. Oh my. I couldn’t believe all the pine needles, leaves, and silt. I sacrificed a plastic spatula to help scoop out all the gunk.
As I was working along towards the downspout near the northwest corner, I saw something white and plastic sitting in a bed of leaves, right over the hole to the downspout. You can just see it at the top of the photo above right. I pulled it out of the downspout… a little plastic bottle!
I went around the house and set the ladder up anywhere I could do so safely. I couldn’t get everywhere, but I at least cleared out around each downspout. While I was up there, I realized that even without all the gunk clogging things up, in some places there is an inch of standing water in the gutters. Aren’t these things supposed to be angled down towards the nearest downspout so the water will actually… you know… drain out? I think over time they start to sag between the brackets.
I started the gutter cleaning project when the rain slacked off to a manageable “Oregon mist”. About the time I got to the last downspout, it began to rain heavy again, so I put the ladder in the garage and headed inside to tackle the basement again.
