How Much Does Gutter Cleaning Cost?

Four things decide the bill. The first is the run of gutter: a small bungalow has a short run with one or two downpipes, while a detached home with an extension at the back may have far more channel to clear. The second is height. Eaves at single-storey level are within easy reach of a short ladder or a pole from the ground, but a gutter above a first-floor window means more equipment and more care.

The third is what is inside. A gutter holding a thin film of grit clears in minutes. One packed with a season of leaves, moss and silt, with seedlings rooted in it, takes far longer, and the waste has to be bagged and taken away. The fourth is what the clearing turns up. Once the channel is empty, a roofer can see cracked brackets, open joints and standing water that points to a bad fall, and any of those may need a separate repair.

That is why a figure quoted over the phone for a house nobody has seen is a guess. A short survey of the gutters, with photos of the worst stretches, lets the roofer put one total on paper that matches the actual job.

There are two usual methods. In vacuum clearing, a powerful suction unit is fitted with a long pole that reaches the gutter from the ground, and a small camera on the end of the pole shows what is being lifted. It suits two-storey houses with plain gutters, because nobody has to climb, and it is quick along an open run. Its limit is stubborn material: packed moss, wet silt or the dried crust that sits against a stop end may not come out through a pipe.

Clearing by hand means a roofer working from a ladder, tower or scaffold, scooping the channel into a bucket or bag. It is slower, and the set-up costs more time, but it is the only way to scrape a heavily fouled gutter back to the plastic and to look closely at each joint, clip and outlet while the hands are on them. Many jobs mix the two: vacuum along the easy lengths, then hands at corners and outlets.

Neither method is better in every case. The right one depends on the height, the state of the gutter and what you want checked while the roofer is up there.

A bungalow or a single-storey rear extension is the lowest-cost case, because a plain ladder gets you to the gutter. A two-storey semi-detached house is the common middle: front and back runs at first-floor height, usually done by vacuum or from a ladder footed on level ground. A three-storey terrace, a house on a slope, or any gutter above a conservatory, porch or flat roof raises the cost, because the roofer cannot simply lean a ladder there.

Where a tower or scaffold is needed, the access can cost more than the cleaning. Checkatrade's September 2026 fascia and soffit table gives £300 to £600 a week for each elevation of scaffold, which is why it makes sense to bring other work forward, such as a fascia repair, rather than hire it for gutters alone. Scaffold that takes up part of the public footway needs a licence from the council responsible for that road, so ask who applies for it.

Also tell the roofer about overhanging trees, a roof covered in moss, or a gutter that has not been cleared in years. Those are the things that turn a short visit into a long one.

When a cleaning price arrives, check what it covers. Does it include taking the waste away? Does it include flushing the downpipes with water to prove they run clear? Does it include a look at the joints and brackets, with photos of anything wrong? Ask whether the figure includes VAT too, as some guides publish prices without it.

Cleaning only helps if the gutter drains. If water still pools or spills over a sound, empty channel, the problem is the fall or a blocked outlet, and our answer on why gutters overflow goes through the causes. A downpipe that stays blocked after the gutter is cleared is covered in blocked downpipes.

You can cut how often you need the job by trimming branches back and keeping the leaf traps clear, and our look at whether gutter guards are worth it weighs one common fix. For repairs, renewals and the rest of the work on the roofline, see our gutters, soffits and fascias page. Tell us how many floors the house has and what the gutter looks like from the ground, and we will name the method we would pick.