Gutter cleaning has two halves that most contractors treat as one. Clearing removes the debris blocking water from reaching the downspouts. Brightening removes the oxidised staining on the outward face, which is a chemical bond that ordinary washing leaves exactly where it is.
What tiger striping actually is
Those evenly spaced dark vertical streaks on the front of your gutters are not dirt. Rainwater running off the roof edge carries a mix of shingle residue, pollution and airborne particulate, and where it sheets over the gutter lip it reacts with the oxidising aluminium and the factory finish.
The result bonds to the surface. Soft washing the house will clean everything around it and leave the striping visibly intact — which is why houses often look freshly washed and yet somehow still tired along the roofline.
Removing it needs a dedicated gutter brightener, applied to the exterior face and agitated. It is a separate step, a separate chemical, and a separate line on the quote. Anyone including it silently in a house wash price is probably not doing it.
What the service covers
A full gutter service means clearing debris from the entire run by hand, flushing every downspout to confirm it actually drains, checking that water flows to the outlets rather than pooling, bagging and removing the debris rather than leaving it in your beds, and a final rinse of the exterior face.
Brightening is quoted as an add-on because not every gutter needs it and not every homeowner wants to pay for it. If the striping is what is bothering you, say so when you call — it is the part that changes how the house reads from the street.
While we are up there we will flag anything we see: loose hangers, separated seams, sections pitched the wrong way, or rot in the fascia behind. We do not repair gutters, but you would rather know.
Why blocked gutters matter more than they look
A blocked gutter does not merely overflow. Water backs up under the shingle edge and into the fascia and soffit, which is the single most common cause of rot along a roofline. In winter that same standing water is what feeds ice damming.
Overflow also lands in a concentrated line at the foundation instead of being carried away, which is a slow, expensive problem — and it kills the plantings directly beneath.
None of this is dramatic on any given day. It is cumulative, and it is why gutter work is the least glamorous and most economically sensible thing on this list.
What gutter work costs
Clearing is priced on linear footage, the number of storeys, and how much tree cover the property has. A house under mature oaks is a materially different job from one in an open lot.
Brightening is priced separately by linear foot, since it is chemical and labour on top of the clearing.
The efficient move is to combine it with a house wash. We are already set up, already have the ladders out, and you are paying one mobilisation instead of two.
How often gutters need clearing
Twice a year is the safe default for most properties here: once after spring seed drop, once after the leaves finish falling. Properties without significant tree cover can often stretch to annually.
The autumn clearing is the one that matters most. Going into winter with blocked gutters is what turns a maintenance item into an ice-dam and fascia-rot problem.
Gutter guards reduce the frequency but do not eliminate it — fine grit and shingle granules still accumulate underneath, and guards themselves need clearing.