Blower with gutter attachment??

[MossRoad]

I just realized this picture doesn't show the guttering

You can see where the gutter should go around the roof.

The gutter is installed today, this is an old picture.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! That's too funny! The first picture I was wondering if that was a deck or porch. 2nd pic makes it pretty clear. His extension pipe would reach a standard 1 story gutter from the ground. It wasn't very heavy, so I imagine you could get two kits and make it longer to do it from the ground. I think it would be a pain to make enough snaky bends to get the gutters while standing on the porch. Perhaps you should invent some sort of dump gutter where the whole thing could be tipped out with a lever so you could blast it out with a hose from the ground? All you'd have to do is make a frame for the gutter to hang on, put the hinged side away from the house and when you tip it, the edge near the house would swing down and away. Kind of like a really wide backhoe bucket. It would dump most of the leaves and crud and you could then hose it out. Heck, with a catch box under the downspout hole you could tip the entire thing. There you go! Richard's Self Cleaning Gutter Systems TM. I give you permission to make millions with my idea. (I'm sure no one else has thought about it yet ).

 

[Ford850]

I have one of the larger Stihl hand held blowers and got the gutter kit last year. It is very thin, light weight plastic. The first time I used it, it paid for itself in my opinion. The Stihl kits will reach a second story gutter from the ground. Combine a strong blower with a long flimsy multi sectioned tube and it gets a little difficult to control. A little practice and it works well. Mine works best when shaped like a candy cane, blowing straight down into the gutter as I drag it along. If you cleaned the gutters several times throughout the fall, after heavy leaf drops and before rains, it would be much easier. Late season or spring cleanings will produce a shower of black slop. That's still better than moving a ladder 10 times.

 

[dmccarty]

Our city house had gutters. What a pain in the ......

We had a shallow pitched roof so I would climb up on the roof and empty the gutters. Tried the Stihl while on the roof. It made a mess out of me. We had lots of big pines and the pine needles would form a mat that was hard to remove with the blower. Maybe if I got on the roof more than 2-3 times a year it would have worked better.

I swore I would just put gutter guards or some such on the gutters but I never did.

The new house does not have gutters.

Later,
Dan

 

[TheKid]

Get some gutter guards like these. I've had them on every house I've owned.

 

[Richard]

why dont you stand on the roof a few feet from the edge and use a regular blower with small homeade extension (PVC pipe) to plow it out that way. then you dont get rained on by debris.

the pitch of the roof doesnt look all that steep. (and you can just climb out a window) and you can always go with fall arest harness and all that good safty jaz if you feel so inclined.

Actually, you can't reach the roof from a window. It's specifically the fact of being on the roof that I'm trying to avoid (carrying heavy ladder, climbing, carrying/lifting backpack blower up....)

I can live with the debris as a tradeoff of being up that high. As it's turning out, the new addition is allowing me to see just how quickly the gutters are filling with leaves. This is brand new construction and I've already had to clean the gutters (on this part of house) out once because of the relatively few leaves that have fallen. The downspout which you see in one of the pictures, has already backed up.

I've told the wife it's looking like I might have to clean this specific section out 2-4 times during the process of leaves falling. I do NOT want to climb up there that many times if I can make something else work, hence this idea about the attachment.

I'm not necessarily scared to climb up there but I know for each time I do not have to climb up there, I can guarantee I won't fall off!

 

[Richard]

I started thinking about laying a piece of PVC pipe in the gutter with holes drilled in it every 12" to 18" which could be attached to my air compressor when I wanted to blow it out. Let the gutter shower hit the ground.

The PVC pipe is light enough & cheap enough that it could be left in the gutter year-round. Only hook it up at blowing time.

Never did get a chance to try it...

Fascenating idea.... perhaps you could run the vertical leg up the downspout as well (to better hide it)

hmmm.....

 

[LBrown59]

Anyone care to share your experiences??
1* I don't want to have to climb a ladder

Yep --
2* just like Moss said -- really good for a gutter dirt shower -- If it does not hit you, it showers everything else -- not one of your better attachments IMHO.

1*My wife and I just cleaned out the gutters on our 30x52 pole building using the BX23 with a large a large shop vac in the Fel Bucket.
We used an 8 foot step ladder because it was easer and quicker to move and set up and was more comfortable on the feet to stand on than an extension ladder.
2*Why we used a shop vac to prevent that.

 

[sawdust_maker]

Good morning Richard. My dad had a hand held Echo leaf blower with their gutter cleaning attachment. It was basically a very long tube with a 180 degree U bend at the top and another 90 degree bend to angle the nozzle. You can stand ont he ground and clean the gutters without a ladder. He tried it out on my grandmother's gutters and promptly got showered with dirt, rotten oak streamers and stagnant gutter water. It worked as advertised!

It works, after a fashion. I made my own, a short one since I mainly have gutters on the first floor. It allows me to do the getters from the ground with no ladders though.

I just took a 90 pvc elbow, and a 45. One of them was a street fitting, to fit into the other directly. Then I coupled them to the tube of the blower with a rubber sleeve and hose clamps.

Since I used only a 90 and a 45, the stream or air is not directly downwards, and the crap tends not to land on my head. I can angle the 45 to where I want it, since I used no glue here. Even so, I don't use it when the gutters are full of water. Whenever I do it, I'll wear a sweatshirt with a hood anyway.

It does work, within limits. Cleaning out the gutters tends to be messy, even if I do it by hand.

John

 

[kennyd]

He tried it out on my grandmother's gutters and promptly got showered with dirt, rotten oak streamers and stagnant gutter water. It worked as advertised!

That is exactly how it worked for me too.

I started thinking about laying a piece of PVC pipe in the gutter with holes drilled in it every 12" to 18" which could be attached to my air compressor when I wanted to blow it out. Let the gutter shower hit the ground.

The PVC pipe is light enough & cheap enough that it could be left in the gutter year-round. Only hook it up at blowing time.

Never did get a chance to try it...

Fascenating idea.... perhaps you could run the vertical leg up the downspout as well (to better hide it)

hmmm.....

This might work for 5' or so...but at the end of the run of pipe you would have no air left. My gutter runs are 80' long

 

[Richard]

This might work for 5' or so...but at the end of the run of pipe you would have no air left. My gutter runs are 80' long

Easy problem... just like my irrigation system, create blow zones!

You think I could stuff about 12 different runs of PVC up my downspout (aside: if not for the subject of this thread, I'd have to suggest that doesn't sound very nice although I'm sure my wife would sometimes like to give it a try )

Anyways... shove 12 different runs of PVC up the downspout with blowholes located in various places

(gads, this still sounds bad)

never mind!!