OP
Obed
Elite Member
Curly Dave and others with similar suggestions,
Very good comments which I will seriously consider.
Thanks,
Obed
At Home In The Woods
- Thread starter Obed
- Start date
Very good comments which I will seriously consider.
Thanks,
Obed
OP
Obed
Elite Member
OP
Obed
Elite Member
Gutter Cleaning Time Again
When we got some heavy rains last week, I noticed our gutters were overflowing again. It was obviously time to clean the gutters. When we cleaned out our gutters for the first time this past spring, CurlyDave said the "pictures looked like a circus act". Since I didn't think I could sell any tickets to this fall's gutter cleaning act, I decided to buy a ladder stabilizer as suggested by Barton.
Thus, I went to Lowe's to buy a ladder stabilizer. Unfortunately, the stabilizer sold by Lowe's only stands the ladder 10" off the wall. Our eaves are 24" plus the gutter depth so I had to go online and order a Louisville Ladder stabilizer that has a 24" stand-off. However, the stabilizer would not be delivered in time for the weekend so the circus act returned to our house this weekend.
Is started at the easiest spot which is the single story section above the garage. I then moved around to the front of the house and worked my way from the garage end of the house to the opposite end. Using the hoe handle, I would drag the leaves to me and then pull the leaves out of the gutters with my hands. The hoe handle extended my reach and minimized the number of times I had to move the ladder.
There is one section in the front of the house where the ladder had to stand on a very unlevel piece of ground. I stacked some boards under the ladder to level the spot and asked my wife to steady the ladder when I climbed it. Having the ladder stabilizer would certainly have been nice at this point. The stabilizer arms rest against the brick and provide lots of friction to keep the top of the ladder from slidding right or left. Without the stabilizer, my ladder was resting against the slippery edge of the aluminum gutters and did not have a lot of lateral support. The gutter cleaning the on the front of the house went smoothly.
I observed that a large section of the gutters on the front of the house slope away from the downspouts instead of toward them. I'm not very happy about that. The gutter company rep assured us that the gutters would all slope toward the downspouts. However, I am fairly confident that the installers never used a level at all. They just installed the gutters even with that trim work around the eaves. I would estimate that the worst section of gutter will have 3/8" of water standing in it after the rain stops. If real terms, I don't know how much of a problem the standing water is but it is definitely annoying.
After finishing the front of the house, I cleaned the gutters on the back of the house. I can access the main floor back porch roof via a window in the attic. Both porches on the back of the house have 3/12 pitch shed roofs. Cleaning the gutters on the shed roofs was easy. I just got on my hands and knees and pulled out the leaves with my hands. I was able to get to the basement back porch by climbing out a living room window.
The hairiest part was cleaning the gutters around the dormer on the back of the house. I've attached an older picture that gives a view of the back dormer. I had to climb out on the 8/12 pitch roof to get to the gutters on the side of the dormer. I've very uncomfortable walking around on that steep of a roof.
I did not clean out the gutter over the two story section of the back of the house. I'm going to wait for the ladder stabilizer to arrive before I tackle that section of the roof. For those who were looking for this episode of the circus act to be as exciting as the spring edition, I must apologize. The circus act this fall was pretty boring.
When we got some heavy rains last week, I noticed our gutters were overflowing again. It was obviously time to clean the gutters. When we cleaned out our gutters for the first time this past spring, CurlyDave said the "pictures looked like a circus act". Since I didn't think I could sell any tickets to this fall's gutter cleaning act, I decided to buy a ladder stabilizer as suggested by Barton.
Thus, I went to Lowe's to buy a ladder stabilizer. Unfortunately, the stabilizer sold by Lowe's only stands the ladder 10" off the wall. Our eaves are 24" plus the gutter depth so I had to go online and order a Louisville Ladder stabilizer that has a 24" stand-off. However, the stabilizer would not be delivered in time for the weekend so the circus act returned to our house this weekend.
Is started at the easiest spot which is the single story section above the garage. I then moved around to the front of the house and worked my way from the garage end of the house to the opposite end. Using the hoe handle, I would drag the leaves to me and then pull the leaves out of the gutters with my hands. The hoe handle extended my reach and minimized the number of times I had to move the ladder.
There is one section in the front of the house where the ladder had to stand on a very unlevel piece of ground. I stacked some boards under the ladder to level the spot and asked my wife to steady the ladder when I climbed it. Having the ladder stabilizer would certainly have been nice at this point. The stabilizer arms rest against the brick and provide lots of friction to keep the top of the ladder from slidding right or left. Without the stabilizer, my ladder was resting against the slippery edge of the aluminum gutters and did not have a lot of lateral support. The gutter cleaning the on the front of the house went smoothly.
I observed that a large section of the gutters on the front of the house slope away from the downspouts instead of toward them. I'm not very happy about that. The gutter company rep assured us that the gutters would all slope toward the downspouts. However, I am fairly confident that the installers never used a level at all. They just installed the gutters even with that trim work around the eaves. I would estimate that the worst section of gutter will have 3/8" of water standing in it after the rain stops. If real terms, I don't know how much of a problem the standing water is but it is definitely annoying.
After finishing the front of the house, I cleaned the gutters on the back of the house. I can access the main floor back porch roof via a window in the attic. Both porches on the back of the house have 3/12 pitch shed roofs. Cleaning the gutters on the shed roofs was easy. I just got on my hands and knees and pulled out the leaves with my hands. I was able to get to the basement back porch by climbing out a living room window.
The hairiest part was cleaning the gutters around the dormer on the back of the house. I've attached an older picture that gives a view of the back dormer. I had to climb out on the 8/12 pitch roof to get to the gutters on the side of the dormer. I've very uncomfortable walking around on that steep of a roof.
I did not clean out the gutter over the two story section of the back of the house. I'm going to wait for the ladder stabilizer to arrive before I tackle that section of the roof. For those who were looking for this episode of the circus act to be as exciting as the spring edition, I must apologize. The circus act this fall was pretty boring.
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955Lincoln
Gold Member
So is cleaning gutters.
Dude....you need to get some adjustable/extendable ladder feet. I wouldn't be showing or telling anyone I climbed a ladder with those pathetic blocks under one leg.
Coyote machine
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X2! Same deal.... Like chainsaws and come alongs, insurance companies HATE ladders and foolish use of same. The multiple blocks would classify as unsafe use.
Why not get the gutter company back to correct the un-pitched sections while installing a gutter topper to keep the leaves out in the first place?! The link following is what I used on my CT home. It has a lifetime guarantee and if it clogs they will come and clean it out and reinstall as needed. www.guttertopper.com Unless you like creating additional unnecessary work for yourself; then you could be doing something you actually want to do.
This is what came up in a zip code search for your general area:
Campbells Gutters & Vinyl Siding
205 W SILVER SHOALS RD
TOCCOA, GA 30577
Phone: 706-886-5481
Email: angelica@guttertopper.com
Website:
Gutter Topper Corporate Office
P.O. Box 349
Amelia, OH 45102
Phone: 800-915-5888
Email: info@guttertopper.com
Website: http://www.guttertopper.com
Last edited:
patrick_g
Elite Member
No big deal this winter but in the spring/summer it will breed mosquitoes. Not a great place to start a mosquito ranch right at the house.
Harbor freight and others sell flexible grating to install across the top of your gutters to keep out leaves. No tools, no fasteners, just flex it and put it in place. It springs back holding itself in place with its own spring action. Depending on size, shape, and volume of leaves seeking to infiltrate your gutters you may once i a while need to clean them out anyway. The HF product is dead simple to remove and replace as are the same product via other sources.
Pat
buckeyefarmer
Epic Contributor
for a ladder on a bank, I would dig a hole for the upper leg, instead of blocks under the lower leg.
woodlandfarms
Super Member
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We are mulling over a pressure washer adapter that cleans out gutters. As I have broken my arm / dislocated my shoulder in 2 seperate ladder accidents, the wife is now insisting. Probably blow our crappy gutters apart but....
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=202498296&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=202498296&ci_kw={keyword}&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googleads-_-pla-_-202498296&ci_gpa=pla&locStoreNum=1002
Carl
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=202498296&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=202498296&ci_kw={keyword}&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googleads-_-pla-_-202498296&ci_gpa=pla&locStoreNum=1002
Carl
Kermitfrog
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Opti-Mist said:I think that is just too funny. Reason: My wife paid for the license 40 years ago and she still keeps me around without reminding me of that fact.
Same for me. My wife paid $25 and I paid $15. I was worth more.
clemsonfor
Super Member
Another Narrow Escape
Sunday afternoon, my wife and I loaded into the back of the truck the freezer that died last year while we were still living in the camper. The junk freezer has been sitting on our property long enough. You can see it on the right side of the first picture. Since we are having a couple big gatherings at our house over Thanksgiving, my wife decided it was time for the freezer to vacate the property. I hurt my back a few years ago moving this freezer. Now I have a tractor. Lifting it into the truck was a breeze this time.
While I was on the tractor, I decided to haul off a couple of stumps to our stump dump which is down a steep hill in the woods. Rain was in the forecast so I wanted to get this done before the ground got wet. I made sure the tractor was in low gear and 4WD and headed down the steep downhill path through the woods. After dumping the stumps on the pile, I put the tractor into reverse so I could back up the hill. I have done this same maneuver a few times before. I could not turn the tractor around and face uphill for rear of rolling the tractor if I got it sideways.
However, when I put the tractor in reverse, the tires just spun in place. I saw quickly that there was no way I was going to be able to drive the tractor backwards back up the hill. The ground was wetter than I had thought. Plus, I had no weight on the rear of the tractor to give the rear wheels some traction. I had removed the box blade the day before in order to move the trailer with the tractor.
Too make things worse, it was starting to lightly rain. We had several days of rain in the forecast and we are approaching the wet season in this area. If I did not get the tractor back up the hill out of the woods within the next couple of hours, I didn't know when it would be feasible to get the tractor out of that spot. It could be months before the path down that hillside dried out. I parked the tractor and ran to get my wife. On the way back, I brought a chain, two steel cables, and an almost useless come-along we bought from Lowes when we rescued my tractor a year ago.
We hooked the come-along to a tree and hooked the cables and chain to the tractor. While turning the tractor tires in reverse, my wife tried to crank the come-along without any success. The come-along could not pull the tractor up the hill. Meanwhile, the rain continued to threaten and we got spurts of light drizzle and the ground just got wetter. I then tried to use the FEL bucket to push the tractor up the hill while keeping the tractor tires moving in reverse. This method worked and could move the tractor 6 inches to a foot when the operation was done successfully. However, the tractor just as easily would slide back downhill into the holes made by the spinning tires.
Thus, I would use the FEL to push the tractor up the hill while my wife cranked on the come-along. The come-along did not help pull the tractor up the hill but it did prevent the tractor from sliding back down the hill. We inched the tractor up the hill in this fashion as the conditions continued to get wetter. Every 4 or 5 feet, we would have to reposition the come-along, cables, and chain when the ran out of come-along cable. I would say we did this routine for about 40 feet until the hill got a little less steep and the tractor tires finally got traction.
I was a very happy camper when we got the tractor out of that predicament! If I had been by myself, I couldn't have gotten the tractor up that hill. I'm not exagerating when I say I don't know when we would be able to retrieve the tractor due to the approaching we season if we weren't able to rescue it when we did. It rained 4 staight days beginning the day I got stuck down the hill. We would probably have needed to hire a tow truck with a winch to come winch the tractor up the hill. I'm assuming a tow truck winch could pull the tractor up that hill but don't really know for sure.
Before i called a tow truck i would call someone with a winch. Any winch can pull that tractor out. Also before i toted those stumps down that hill id just burn them on the edge of the clearing. I have learned my lesson in this mannor before. Even when dry you can get "stuck" on a slope. 4wheelers will do the same thing on a slope, which is about the only way to get one stuck. Stay off the hill, even if its dry will save you some headaches. Those stumps with all the yard debris and a few gallons of deisel will burn down in a day or two.