How-to guide
How to Tell Your Gutters Are Clogged Without Climbing Up
You can diagnose a blocked gutter from the ground in about ten minutes. Almost none of it needs a ladder, and the one part that does is the part worth paying someone else for.
Watch the downspout while it rains: a clear gutter runs a steady stream, a blocked one dribbles or throws water over the front edge. Then look for a dirty tide line on the fascia, a trench or splash pattern in the soil below, and anything green growing along the roof edge. Three of those together means it is packed, not merely dirty.
What you'll need
Step by step
- 1Watch the downspout in the rain
This is the fastest test there is and it costs nothing. During steady rain a working downspout runs a continuous stream at the bottom, about the thickness of a pencil or more. A blocked one trickles, pulses, or runs nothing at all while water pours over the gutter lip twenty feet away. If it is not raining, put a hose in the gutter at the far end from the downspout and give it five minutes. Water should arrive at the outlet and keep coming.
- 2Read the ground under the gutter
Water that goes over the front edge lands in the same line every storm and leaves a record. Look for a narrow trench in the soil, splashed dirt up the lower stucco, flattened bark mulch, or a strip of moss along the foundation. That line tells you which run is overflowing, which is usually nearer the middle than the corner. Where the splash reaches the wall, press the stucco and look for staining: water running down a wall for several winters is the expensive version of this problem.
- 3Look for the tide line on the fascia
Zoom in with a phone camera or use binoculars and look along the board the gutter is fastened to. A gutter that has been overflowing leaves a dark horizontal streak below its front edge, and often orange rust tears at the screw heads. Clean gutters leave the fascia clean. While you are looking, check whether the gutter still sits level or has started to sag between hangers, because a sag holds water and collects debris faster than the rest of the run.
- 4Look for anything growing
Seedlings, grass, or a fern tuft along the roof edge means there is enough soil up there to hold roots, and soil in a gutter is the end state of two or three unswept seasons. In Los Angeles the usual culprits are pine needles, jacaranda litter, and the fine grit that comes off a composition roof. A plant visible from the sidewalk is not an early warning. It means the gutter has been full for a long time.
- 5Check the seams and the corners from below
Stand under each corner and each joint and look up with a flashlight. Dripping at a seam between storms means water is standing in the gutter rather than draining, which is either a blockage or a slope problem. Rusty weep marks under a joint mean the same thing over a longer period. Note which corners drip; that is the useful thing to tell whoever clears it.
- 6Know where to stop
Everything above happens with both feet on the ground. Going up changes the risk completely, and the numbers are not kind: falls from ladders put tens of thousands of people in American emergency rooms every year, and most of those ladders were on a driveway that looked flat. Do not go up at all if the roof is tile, if it is a second story, if the ladder cannot stand on level ground, or if you would be working alone. Clay tile in particular breaks under a knee and the repair costs many times the cleaning.
What can go wrong (and how to fix it)
The blockage is upstream of the outlet, or the gutter is out of level and water pools at the far end. Both are visible from the ground: watch where it spills during rain, and you have located the section.
That is usually a missing or failed drip edge, not a clog. Water wicks off the roof edge and runs behind the gutter instead of into it. Worth fixing properly, because it soaks the fascia rather than the ground.
Stop diagnosing and get it looked at. Soft fascia means water has been sitting against wood long enough to rot it, and cleaning the gutter does not fix that. It usually means replacing a board before the next rains, not after.
Our insured pros handle gutter cleaning from $150, same-week, with an upfront flat price and a satisfaction guarantee.
FAQ
How often do gutters need clearing in Los Angeles?
Once a year for most houses, in October, before the rains. Twice if pines, jacarandas or liquidambars overhang the roof, because those drop enough to fill a gutter in a single season.
Is it worth fitting gutter guards?
They help with leaves and do nothing for pine needles and grit, which are exactly what clogs gutters here. They also make the annual check harder, since you can no longer see into the run. Useful under a heavy leaf tree, not a reason to skip looking.
Can I just hose the gutters out from a ladder?
You can, and it half works: hosing a dry packed gutter turns the debris into a sludge that sets around the outlet. Clearing by hand first and flushing afterwards is the order that actually leaves it draining.
What happens if I leave it until the rain starts?
The job gets slower and more expensive, because wet debris weighs several times what dry debris weighs and has to come out in buckets. The overflow also does its damage during the first storm, not the fifth.