Gutters: the cheapest insurance your house has

How to tell your gutters are struggling

The best inspection costs nothing: stand at a window during heavy rain and watch. Water should be moving invisibly. A waterfall over the gutter edge, a drip line mid-run, or a downpipe doing nothing while the gutter brims are all fails.

In dry weather the evidence is written on the walls: green algae streaks below a gutter line, tide marks on brickwork, moss thriving in one damp band, plants growing out of the gutter itself. Inside, the end result is penetrating damp on the wall nearest the overflow, which is a far more expensive conversation.

The safe-DIY line

Height decides this one. A single-storey gutter (bungalow, garage, kitchen extension) that you can reach comfortably from a ladder is a reasonable homeowner job. Anything on a two-storey wall or above is not, however confident you feel; that is work for someone with vacuum poles, a tower or proper access kit. The outside survival guide draws the same line for every job out there.

Professionals with gutter vacuums clear a whole house from the ground, often with a camera on the pole so you can see the before and after. For two storeys and up, that is the sane option, and it is not expensive.

Sagging runs, dripping joints and downpipes that part company with the wall are usually repaired by the metre or the joint rather than replaced wholesale. If the downpipe runs freely but water still backs up at ground level, the blockage has moved underground, and that is the territory of the outside drain guide.

When to do it

The big one is after leaf fall, as part of the wider autumn checklist, so the system enters winter empty. Spring earns a second look: seed cases, moss pushed off the roof by birds, and the occasional nest. Leaf guards and brushes reduce how often you clear, and they are at their best under trees, but they are a filter, not a force field; they still need checking, and moss sludge builds beneath them eventually.