Cleaning gutters involves getting up on a ladder to heights of 20 feet or more. Falls from heights may result in expensive medical bills, unpaid time off from work, and potential fatalities. Over time the act of cleaning the gutters causes damage to the roof and gutters, which causes premature replacement expenses. A fall from a roof while cleaning gutters may cause an unwanted lawsuit from an uninsured contractor.

At this point in time, many homeowners are still doing it the old fashion way. They are either cleaning the gutters themselves or hire a service. This is better than having clogged gutters, but there are still some issues.

Have you ever walked on the roof? The roof granules are scraped off by your feet. In fact, it’s very hard to walk on the roof without scraping the granules off the shingles. The roof granules serve two purposes; slow the flow of water coming off the roof and protect the life of the shingle. Hence it’s not a good idea to damage the shingles. An average gutter needs to be cleaned a minimum of four times a year. Even if you’re very careful, you’re going to be doing significant damage to your roof.

Then there is the issue of the gutters. Commonly gutters get dented by ladders, and hangars (the support system supporting the gutters on the roof) get pulled off. Sometimes people accidentally step on the gutters while cleaning. In short, the life of your roof and gutters are minimized by frequent cleaning.

For the “Do it yourself” home owner, gutter cleaning is not a pleasant experience. A clogged gutter is typically a smelly, wet mess. There’s usually a mess on the ground to clean up as well. On top of it, many an unwary homeowner has found a hornet’s nest in or around the gutter. Where do you run in a situation like that?

As we get older, and even those in great shape, we lose our sense of balance. This is very dangerous when you are 20 feet or higher. If you fall, what are the chances of getting seriously hurt?

Some people hire a service. These companies charge by the foot. That translates into them making money by doing as much footage as they can per day. Do you think that they are going to be careful with your roof and gutters? Or do you think they will go as fast as they can? After all, the condition of your roof is not a concern to them. It can always be blamed on the roofer or quality of shingle.

A new roof is expensive, therefore cleaning your gutters whether it is you or a service can be potentially more expensive due to damage done to the roof and gutters.

Another concern is insurance. Many contractors that said they have insurance, in reality don’t or have allowed it to lapse. There have been instances of contractors purchasing the insurance once so that they have a document to show the customer and hope that they don’t check the expiration date. Insurance can be as high as 25% of the labor cost. Do you think the guy who is charging $1.00 of foot to clean your gutters is going to allocate 25 cents of it for liability insurance? Most will not be able to afford that expense because it would erode their bottom line to the extent that they couldn’t make a living. Guess who’s responsible if they get hurt?

Any feelings that these uninsured gutter cleaners may have for you and your family goes out the door when there is a potential of getting a large volume of cash to provide for the injured and their family. Personal Injury Lawyers are very aggressive and make a lot of money. PI lawyers work on commission. They are very skilled at finding ways of extracting the money from you.