The method followed for cleaning of your gutters determines the right kind of gutter equipment to be used for the purpose of cleaning. Another contributory factor is the volume of built-up that you might have in your gutters. Nevertheless, the basic equipment for all gutters includes a foot ladder (10 to 32 foot), gloves and a bucket. Here are the four cleaning methods people resort to for cleaning of gutters:
The first method makes use of a leaf blower to blow out the build up from the gutter. Unless your roof is too steep, this is conveniently done on top of the roof. This is ideal for dry gutters and is very fast too. But, the negative point of this method is you’ll take a long time in clearing the mess that gets created below. And, keep in mind that a gas blower delivers better results than an electric one and is slightly faster also.
The other option for cleaning the gutter is by using a wet vacuum. The most convenient part is that all the mess from the gutter is collected within the container and that makes cleaning easier. The difficult part is that vacuum is heavy and if there’s a lot of build up in the gutter, you have to empty the container a number of times. Many householders don’t consider this method to be heavy at all. It all depends how frequently you have been cleaning the gutter and what are the contents of the gutter. For example, pine needles are much heavier than leaves. So if there are lots of leaves in the gutter, this will be a very convenient way to clean the same.
But I prefer to use the third method here that involves using a combination of a gutter-cleaning rake with a bucket and ladder. I find it safer to work from a ladder than from the roof. Plus, you get an extension of extra five feet on either side of the ladder on using a rake. You can work two times faster with this arrangement. Here’s one more tip for making a gutter tool: cut a milk carton to get a scoop with handle and use it for removing debris from the gutter.
You may use any of the three methods whichever suits most.