Our own crew cleans gutters in Petaluma CA, every downspout flushed and flow-tested, the waste hauled away, and photos of every run before we leave. The price comes from the number of stories, the size of the house and how much tree cover hangs over the roof, and the number we give on the phone is the number on the invoice. Most of our customers book in the spring and fall, and we have been running those visits on houses in town long enough to know what each one turns up.
Quoted from stories, size and tree cover, over the phone, with nothing added once the crew is on the roof.
The price on Petaluma homes depends on how many stories the house has, its square footage and what is sitting in the gutters. We quote it over the phone or by text from those three things, and the number we quote is the number we charge. Gutter cleaning services that price by the linear foot land in a similar place per foot of run, but a number per foot leaves out the height and the tree cover, which are what actually drive the time on a ladder.
On our jobs the things that move the quote are consistent. A third story or a roof too steep to walk takes longer and needs a boom or scissor lift for the back run. A walk-out basement or a sloped lot raises the working height at the eave, so the crew is working higher than the front of the house suggests. Gutters that nobody has opened in years sag under packed leaves and debris, a buildup that takes more passes. A run that cuts off drainage at the outlet takes an extra pass as well. Guards we have to lift and reseat add their own time. Downspout flushing, water flow checks and debris removal are included and are never billed as extras. Commercial properties get the same method, quoted per building. If anything we find changes the job, we raise it before work starts, never on the invoice.
Here is what the experience looks like. On our jobs the back run under a heavy canopy has leaves packed into the trough, and the crew finds clogged downspouts, one with a clog at the second elbow that needs flushing from the top end. That is the part that takes longer than the front, and it gets called out before the crew goes up. The homeowner has the photos of every run on their phone before the truck leaves.
Bring us a photo of the front of the house by text if it is easy to take, and tell us the stories and whether trees overhang the house. That is enough for us to give you a number that holds.
| One story | Two stories | Three stories or steep | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1,500 sq ft | from $150 | from $225 | from $295 |
| 1,500 to 2,500 sq ft | from $200 | from $260 | from $335 |
| Over 2,500 sq ft | from $235 | from $305 | from $395 |
For context, nationally: Angi 2026, US average $168, most $119 to $234, $0.95 to $2.25 per linear foot.
Downspouts flushed and flow-tested, debris hauled, photos of every run. The quote already has all of it in.
Our crew clears every gutter run by hand, not just the stretch you can see from the driveway. Roof valleys and the area above the gutter line are blown clear first, so the next rain does not refill what was just emptied. Every downspout is flushed with water and watched until it runs clear at the bottom; one that will not clear is worked from the top where it can be reached. Where a downspout feeds an underground drain line, the crew checks that water is leaving at the outlet and tells you if it is not; clearing a buried line is a separate job and is quoted before anyone touches it.
Debris goes into bags and leaves with the truck. It is not blown onto the lawn, the deck or next door. The ground is left as it was found.
Before the crew leaves you get photos of every run and every downspout, before and after, on your phone, whether or not you were home. Anything the crew sees that is not a cleaning problem, a hanger pulled loose, a seam dripping, a run sitting flat, is photographed and reported, not repaired and not sold on the spot.
What can change the number, and you hear it before work starts, never on the invoice: a third story or a roof too steep to walk; gutters that have not been touched in years; guards that have to come off and go back on.
Twice a year for most houses: once after the spring seed and pollen drop, once after the last leaves fall.
Most of our customers book two visits a year, spring and fall: once after the seed and pollen drop, and once after the last leaves come down. On our jobs the spring visit finds seeds, seed casings and pollen paste packed into the elbows, which is where a clog forms first. The fall visit finds the leaves, and in cities where the ground freezes it also finds the first ice forming along the roofline, where rainwater backs up. On houses that skipped the fall visit we have seen runs that sagged or pulled loose by the next spring, because ice backed up behind the blockage and the weight had nowhere to go, and that is how structural damage starts. Heavy rainfall after a dry spell is the other time a clogged gutter shows itself.
How often you need it depends on what is around the house. Gutters exist to carry water away from your home, and regular gutter cleaning is what keeps them doing it. Under heavy tree cover, every three to four months, because needles and grit pack the outlets between visits. Near a busy road or a construction site, the same schedule applies. A house with few or no trees usually needs one visit a year in late fall. Guards mean less frequent cleaning, but gutter maintenance is still needed: the surface gets cleared and the gutter still gets flushed.
On our jobs we have two patterns that show the difference. A house with no trees on the lot runs a once-a-year schedule, and the rain gutter comes down clean every time. A house under a mature canopy runs a three-to-four-month schedule, and the crew clears a fresh layer of grit from the back run on each visit before a wet mat can start a leak at the joint. Both are residential properties.
Clean your gutters on the schedule you book, for residential and commercial buildings alike. After the first visit we give you an estimate of which tier your lot actually needs, and until then the schedule you book is the one we start with.
Water over the edge rots the board behind the gutter first. Everything after that is slow, and slow is what a policy excludes.
The three signs. Water pouring over the front edge in rain instead of out of the downspout. A run that sags, sits low or has pulled away from the fascia. Plants growing out of the trough. Any one of them means the gutter is full.
What happens next. Water that cannot drain sits in the trough and spills behind it. The fascia board rots, then the soffit. Water backs up under the first course of shingles and shows up as a ceiling stain. Siding stains and swells. Below, the overflow cuts a channel at the foundation and finds the basement. The wet debris itself weighs enough to pull the gutter off the house. Standing water breeds mosquitoes; dry debris houses wasps. Where winters freeze, the trapped water becomes an ice dam at the eave and lifts the shingles from underneath.
Why your policy will not pay. Homeowners insurance generally does not cover water damage traced to clogged gutters. Carriers class gutter cleaning as routine maintenance, and damage from skipped maintenance as preventable neglect, which a standard policy excludes. A limb that tears a gutter off in a storm is sudden and accidental and is usually covered; a fascia board that rotted over two years is not. This is general information, not insurance advice; read your policy or ask your agent.
Guards stop leaves. They do not stop needles, seeds, grit or the paste they turn into. The job gets shorter, not gone.
Yes, guarded gutters still need cleaning, less often, and it is a different job: clearing what sits on top of the guard and checking that water is actually getting in, rather than scooping out the trough. Mesh and screen guards hold whole leaves off. Pine needles thread through, seed casings and pollen mat on top, roof grit settles underneath, and once that mat is wet, rain runs over it and off the front edge. The gutter is empty and the water never went in.
Guards earn their keep under big leafy trees and on roofs too high to want to climb. They do not end maintenance, whatever the installer said. Our crew lifts the panels, clears underneath, flushes the downspouts and reseats the guards; tell us what is on the house when you get the quote and it is priced as a guarded system, which usually runs shorter than an open one.
Under an hour on most houses. Nobody has to be there, and the photos arrive either way.
The crew calls the day before with an arrival window and again when they are on the way. This Old House puts a professional gutter cleaning at 30 minutes to an hour on a typical home; bigger houses, steep roofs and gutters left for years run longer. Nobody needs to be home for exterior work; the crew does not come inside. Before they arrive: side gate unlocked, cars off the driveway if runs face it, pets inside while ladders are up. Ladder stand-offs keep the ladder off the gutter lip and the siding. After: photos of every run and downspout before the truck leaves, and an invoice that matches the quote.
Send us a photo or a short video in the rain. You hear what it is before anyone talks about money.
Still overflowing. A gutter that is clean and still sheets water over the edge in rain has a slope, capacity or downspout-size problem, not a debris problem. If that happens after a cleaning, send us a photo or a short video of it in the rain and we tell you what it actually is; we do not sell a second cleaning for a slope problem.
The number. The price quoted on the phone is the price on the invoice. If the crew finds something that changes the job, you hear it and agree to it before they start, never after.
Your house. Stand-offs on every ladder so nothing rests on the gutter lip, and screens and downspout extensions go back where they were.
Payment. The balance is charged when the job is finished and the photos are on your phone. Some dates take a small booking fee to hold the slot, and you hear about it before you book.
The whole city and the towns around it, booked by phone or text from the nearest crew.
Our crew works across Petaluma and the surrounding areas from the nearest base. Petaluma gutter cleaning is what we do all year, on residential properties, and we keep a record of each job with its photos. A homeowner books by phone or text: call (866) 435-6328 and you get a quote from your stories, the size of the house and whether trees overhang it. A photo of the house front helps if it is easy to send. We call before we come, and nobody needs to be home for the visit. We clean the whole gutter system, not just the front run, and a twig wedged in an outlet gets pulled out by hand. If your house has gutter guards, tell us when you call.
The calendar fills in two busy windows, one in late spring and one in late fall, when most homes in town are on the same schedule. Cleanings in those windows fill first, so if you are planning around them, book early. A gutter cleaning service with its own crew gives you a date it can keep. Lead time is confirmed when you call. A gutter that is due for its visit does not get better by waiting, so the earlier the slot, the sooner we can get your gutters on the schedule and keep your gutters and downspouts clear, which protects your home from water damage.
We also do gutter services on commercial properties, and that work is scheduled per building. For residential and commercial work the gutter cleaning process is the same as described above: a quote, a date, and a crew that will flush every downspout before it leaves.
The number comes from the number of stories, the square footage and what is in the gutters, and we give it by phone or text. Tell us the stories and whether trees overhang the house, and we quote a price that is the price you pay. We do not quote a figure without those three things.
Across California the spring visit falls in mid to late June, after the seed and pollen drop, and most of our customers across Petaluma also book a fall visit in late November to December, after the last leaves are down. If you wait past the fall visit, we see runs that sag by the next spring on houses that skipped it, and the water that spills behind them starts rot. Heavy tree cover in your landscape means a visit every three to four months.
Most slots come up within the week, and we confirm the date when you call. Our cleaning services in Petaluma are booked by date, and we do not promise same-day unless we can actually make it happen. Call (866) 435-6328 and ask us what is open.
No. Our crew works outside, does not come inside, and sends photos of every run and downspout to your phone before the truck leaves. Leave the side gate unlocked and keep pets in while the ladders are up, and the crew leaves the yard clean.
Yes, every downspout is flushed and flow-tested, and we check the drainage at the outlet to confirm water is leaving. Clearing a buried drain line is a separate job, and we quote it before anyone touches it. We will tell you if the outlet is not draining.
Yes. On our jobs guards keep leaves out, but needles, seed casings and grit still sit on the surface, and once they mat they run over the front edge. We clear the surface, flush each downspout and reseat the guards. The job is shorter, but it is still cleaning and maintenance, and gutter maintenance does not go away because the guards are on.
If a clean gutter still sheets water over the edge in the rain, the problem is slope, capacity or the downspout size, not debris. Send us a photo or a short video of it in the rain and we will tell you what it is. We do not sell a second cleaning for a slope problem.
It should not. The price you were quoted is the price on the invoice. If the crew finds something that changes the job, you hear it and agree to it before they start, never after.
Stories, size and a photo of the front by text. That is a real number, not an appointment.
