When to book your autumn gutter clean (later than you think)

Every September the phones start ringing with people who want their gutters done before winter. It is the right instinct and, nine times out of ten, the wrong week. Most of the trees around Lincoln are still in full leaf until the end of October, and the big drop comes with the first hard frost and the first proper gale, usually in the middle of November.

Clean in September and the gutter is spotless for about six weeks. Then the leaves come down onto a clean run, sit in the outlet and turn into the dense black mat that blocks a downpipe by Christmas.

The window that works

For most houses, the right time is the last two weeks of November and the first week of December. The oaks and limes have dropped, the sycamores are bare, and what is in the gutter is everything that is going to be in it until spring. If you are on our spring and autumn plan, this is when we come.

The exception is a house under conifers or evergreen oaks, which drop needles all year round. For those, the timing matters less than the frequency, and guards usually make more sense than an extra clean.

What to check yourself in October

You do not need to go up a ladder to know how your gutters are doing. On the first heavy rain of the autumn, stand outside for five minutes with a coat on and look at the roofline.

• Water spilling over the front edge in one spot means a blockage near that point, usually at an outlet.
• Water pouring out of a joint, rather than over the edge, means a perished seal, not a blockage.
• A downpipe that stays quiet while the gutter above it is full means the pipe itself is blocked, usually in the swan neck at the top.

Take a photo on your phone. It tells us where to look first.

At ground level

Lift the gully grids at the foot of each downpipe and scoop out the leaves. A silted gully sends water back up the pipe and makes a clean gutter overflow. It takes ten minutes with a trowel and a bucket, and it is the one gutter job that does not need a ladder.