It might seem as if you are saving time and money on not clearing your roof gutters of leaves and other debris, but what about the long-term health of your property?  Find out why regular gutter cleaning to deal with clogged gutters is important to the health of your property investment.

How Your Roof Gutters Protect Your Building

When it rains, the surface of your roof gets hit by a lot of water. To put the amount of water involved in perspective, if a rain shower produced 1mm of rain, each square metre of roof surface will get by 1 litre of water. The guttering attached to the roof is designed to collect and channel the rain water into a downpipe and into an underground storm water drain. Without a properly maintained and working gutter, a heavy downpour can create a lot of potentially expensive problems for your building that are easily preventable.

Roof Damage

Without proper drainage, rain water can get backed up and the constant contact with the edging and underlying materials inside the roof can cause corrosion and rot. Rotting wood can not only induce fungus and insect infestations, but also major structural damage and in the worst case cause your roof to collapse. While a cared for and well-maintained tile roof should last between 35 to 50 years, the lifespan is likely to be shortened if the guttering and downpipe are not kept clear.

Gutter Damage

Build up of dirt and leaves can prevent rain water drainage, creating pools of water to collect and sit for long periods of time. The stagnant water will eventually create rusting if left to stand too long. The rust can create holes or weaken the joins and attachments to the roof. Not only can rust eventually create the need to replace your gutters, but loose guttering can also pose a risk of injury if they detach and fall onto someone.

Damage to Foundations

If a lot of rain water isn’t getting drained away from your property, it can seep into your building foundations and damage the slab. Exposing a building’s foundations to damp can cause the slab to deteriorate or it could shift in soggy soil. Old or low-cost housing is especially susceptible to foundation damage from poor roof drainage. Buildings that are affected by a damaged foundation can cost serious amounts to fix running into the tens of thousands of your hard-earned money.

Landscaping/Garden Damage

If your gutters are not providing proper drainage during a heavy downpour, a lot of that water can build up around the building. Too much of this can create flooding and damage to landscaping and foliage.

Damage to Walls, Doors and Veranda

The excess water that spills over from clogged guttering can fall onto surfaces such as walls, doors, windows and verandas support beams. Wooden surfaces subjected to too much contact with water can rot. When rot sets in, window frames, doors and other fittings lose their integrity, crumble and break.

Prevent the Damage with a Professional Gutter Clean

While cleaning the gutters is easy to neglect, getting it done at least every 6 months is a smart investment in the longevity of your building. Hiring a professional gutter cleaner will also save you or a loved one from having to get up a ladder and risk injury. Porter Vac use commercial grade gutter vacuum technology that is safe, efficient and leaves no mess behind. Contact Porter Vac or call 1300 833 399 and schedule your next gutter clean.

The cost barriers to entry to getting equipped to offer a gutter cleaning service has dramatically dropped in the past year or so, and as a result there have been many newcomers and tradies offering it. While the plummeting price of time-saving technology is a wonderful thing, simply possessing easily affordable equipment to do the job doesn’t necessarily give the best value to their customers.

Gutter Cleaning can be a VERY Cheap Start-up Business

The gutter cleaning business has always been very easy to get into with just a ladder and gloves and some old-fashioned elbow grease, although that method is difficult, dangerous work as well as time consuming. Results from the manual method is often inconsistent, with mess either left behind for the homeowner to deal with or in any case the leaves and debris needs to be cleaned up after cleaning the gutters. Alarm bells should certainly be ringing if anyone turns up to clean your roof gutters on “hard mode” as video gamers would put it. There are no extra prizes for making a job as difficult as possible for yourself.

Hand-held gutter vacuum cleaners hit the hardware stores years ago and are now quite cheap. These tools leave behind less mess, but are heavy and can create a dangerous balance issue when carrying it up and down from the roof. A cowboy gutter cleaner might get away with using one of these in the domestic market, but for commercial jobs, using a hand-held gutter vacuum would be completely unacceptable.

Even more recently, the cost of entry-level commercial grade gutter vacuum systems has sharply fallen. A tradie can now hitch a trailer with a high-powered vacuum system for as little as $5,000. This option is certainly safer and more efficient than either doing it on hard mode or using a domestic market toy for the job, but a lot also depends on the quality of the “rig” they are using. Getting in at the cheap end of the vacuum gutter market might look like a no-brainer investment, but a lot can go wrong with inferior equipment and frequent replacement can really sting the cash flow. The seemingly low entry costs to the gutter cleaning industry makes it easy to jump in, but many will find that they didn’t think it through and won’t make it very long in the game.

Roofing Specialist versus the Jack of All Trades

Some people like to imagine the ideal super tradie, who can handle any task they are given, from landscaping, carpentry, concreting and roofing through to painting elegant murals or creating mosaics. Such multi-talented people may exist, but they are rare. For most of us mortals, spreading your talents and experience too thin can mean can become self-defeating. That’s why we recruit our talent pool from qualified and experienced roof tilers and offer a specialised gutter cleaning service. By drawing talent from the roofing trades and further training them in our tried and proven methods and equipment, you will be dealing people who know exactly what they are doing.

 Are They Easy to Contact and Communicate With?

If the only contact available is a mobile phone number, you’re probably going to have trouble getting through. It usually indicates a very small business, which would be confirmed if answered while already on a job. Using a 13 or 1300 number as a business contact backed by a brand that depends on offering great customer service to maintain its market reputation inspires a lot more confidence. Porter Vac has a dedicated in-house call centre in the same building where the gutter cleaning specialists are dispatched from.

Are They Accountable for Their Mistakes?

It should go without saying that anyone who goes on your property to do work should have the appropriate insurance to cover any damages or other liabilities. It’s a good idea to make sure they do, but real integrity and professionalism in the character of the people you do business with is just as important. Even the best of us make mistakes occasionally, but owning it and taking responsibility sets the professional apart from the all too common “shonky tradies” that we see on those current affairs shows. From the very beginning, Porter Vac has instilled in employees that the goodwill gained by taking an honest approach to dealing with mistakes far outweighs the costs. Before and after photos are taken of the roof on every job so that you can see the results for yourself. In situations where tiles are broken or other roof damage occurs from our team members, this can usually be fixed on the spot at no cost to you because they are all roofing specialists.

No Mess Professional Gutter Cleaning for Home & Business

Porter Vac promotes gutter cleaning as the core business, so we have invested in making the service as safe, efficient and customer friendly as possible. Every job is important to us and every client gets VIP service because we’ve developed the systems behind our team members to deliver consistently great results.

Simply give us a call on 1300 833 399 or complete our quote form for a fast cost estimate on our gutter cleaning services available in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

With Spring in the air and the cold weather beginning its retreat, now is the perfect time to get the roof guttering clean and clear, ready for the hot spells to come and bushfire season.

Why Is Early Spring the Perfect Time to get the Roof Gutters Cleaned?

The warmer weather and vibrancy of Spring in the air brings a zest of energy and purpose to our lives as nature comes out of dormancy with all its glorious beauty and colour. As the wet and cold weather recedes, early Spring is the time when more sunny days are available to get property maintenance jobs done and get everything looking good and working properly.

Prevent Damage from Thunderstorms

This winter brought us a lot of wind and rain, as well as an impressive snow season in Victoria and New South Wales. Over the next few months there may be storms and more rain, so now is the time during the sunny days to get your roof guttering and downpipes cleared of leaves and debris to reduce the risk of flooding and structural water damage that could result from a heavy downpour. Blocked downpipes can potentially cause $1000s in damage to the plaster and interior of your home or business due to water damage from poor roof drainage. The Porter Vac team have seen this happen too many times, where rain water pools in the roof cavity, causing all kinds of expensive damage.

In Brisbane, the thunderstorms tend to roll in around November, making September and October the window of opportunity to make sure your roof guttering and downpipes are clean and properly maintained. The frequency of storms in Sydney and Melbourne start to increase through the warmer months, making early Spring the best time of year apart from Autumn for gutter cleaning.

Prepare for Bushfire Season Now

As the weather warms up and the vegetation dries out, so does the risk of bushfires. Dry leaves, twigs and other debris present a serious fire hazard during late spring and summer. Removing this risk before vegetation dries out and bushfire season begins is a smart move that is recommended by fire fighters. Bushfires can strike suddenly and unexpectedly, so now is the time to prepare for it.

Prevent Pest Infestations

All kinds of critters share this great country with us, and many can have a negative effect on human health. A lot can happen in 6 months, such as animals dying on your roof and decomposing, pooping and croaking and breeding insects and so forth. Spring is the time when whatever family of critters or creepy crawlies that’s gotten involved with your roof will soon be manifesting into a proper nuisance. A pre-emptive strike through timely maintenance of your roof gutters, including an inspection of the rest of the roof can head off any nasty surprises or smells in store for you in the coming months.

Roof Gutter Cleaning Frequency

For most homes and commercial buildings, the roof gutters should only need a thorough cleaning once every 12 months. It might be required more frequently if the property has a lot of trees overhanging or near the roof, in which case it is recommended every 6 months or so. The other perfect time for gutter cleaning is during Autumn to make sure your roof isn’t susceptible to blockage when the rain comes and winter sets in.

After your first gutter clean from Porter Vac, the frequency needed to make sure your gutters and downpipes are clear is assessed and a timeline worked out with you depending on how much debris is expected to accumulate.

Making it Easy for Property Managers and Landlords

Keeping the roof properly maintained on an investment property is made easy for property managers and landlords choosing Porter Vac as their service provider. With professional job booking facilities and consultants, you can depend on us to make the whole process hassle free with minimal impact on your tenants enjoyment of the property.

Get Your Roof Gutters Professionally Cleaned in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane

Hopefully you are convinced of the importance of putting the roof gutter cleaning on the to-do list for this spring, but it’s easier said than done. Booking in a professional service that specialises in gutter cleaning can save you time as well as having to get up on a ladder without all the specialist tools for the job. Porter Vac use proper safety gear and the team are all qualified and experienced roof tilers. They also leave no mess and get the job done quickly and efficiently. We understand how home maintenance can get away from you. We want to keep your roof drainage in A1 condition and appreciate the importance it holds for your greatest asset.

Call Porter Vac on 1300 833 399 or get an online quote for professional gutter cleaning and roof maintenance services for spring and take the stress out of maintaining your roof and gutters.