Our own crew cleans gutters in San Rafael, every downspout flushed and flow-tested, debris 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 property, and the number we give on the phone is the number on the invoice. Across California, most of the houses we clean are booked in the spring and fall, and we say so because it is what our calendar looks like.
Quoted from stories, size and tree cover, over the phone, with nothing added once the crew is on the roof.
The price depends on stories, square footage and what is sitting in the gutters. We build the San Rafael gutter cleaning quote from those three things, and you get an estimate by phone at (866) 435-6328 or by text. The number we quote is the number we charge. Other gutter cleaning services price by the linear foot, and that can land in a similar place, but the house itself is what we are actually looking at.
What moves the quote on our jobs is usually a third story or a roof too steep to walk, a walk-out basement or sloped lot that puts the back run far above the ground, gutters nobody has opened in years and packed with compacted leaves, and guards that we have to lift and reseat before we can clear underneath. Downspout flushing, flow testing and debris haul-off are included and never billed as extras. If something changes the job once we are on site, you hear about it before work starts, never on the invoice.
Plenty of San Rafael homes are older, and their gutters carry more leaf and seed load than you would guess from the driveway, with the leaves and debris packed into the elbows where the downspout starts. The clog is usually worse than it looks from the ground, and clogged downspouts often hide more sludge than the gutter does. When water sits in a gutter with a sag in the run and is full of sludge, it backs up behind the fascia and into the wall, and that is how minor drainage problems turn into structural damage. Keeping the gutters clean before the buildup sets in is cheaper than fixing rot later, and we say that plainly because it is what we see on the ladder. Flow testing shows us whether water is actually reaching the downspout and moving the water away from your home, and that is the part most homeowners never see.
Water flow is the test we care about most. If it is still running over the edge after the gutter is clean and flushed, the problem is almost always slope or downspout capacity, not what is sitting in the trough, and a downspout that cannot carry the water away is a sizing problem. We tell you that rather than selling a second cleaning. On a few older houses in San Rafael the gutter was simply undersized for the house, and no amount of clearing will fix that, so we photograph it and write it up. Rain gutter problems that need work beyond cleaning are out of our scope, and when we find them we report them to you and move on.
| 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 in San Rafael CA book twice a year, in spring and fall. Across California, the spring visit lands in mid to late June, after the seed and pollen drop, and the fall visit in late November to December, after the last leaves come down. Open a gutter in that spring window and you find seeds packed into the elbows and pollen paste sitting on the wet leaves. In the fall it is the leaf mat, and that is where a regular gutter cleaning does its job before the rainy season hits. Rainwater in the wettest months, December through February, is what tests drainage hardest, and by then a clog that was minor in late November can be a blockage that pulls the gutter off the wall. Stay on top of it and you can clean your gutters on schedule without a scramble.
Under heavy tree cover, or near a busy road or construction, the schedule tightens to every three to four months, because needles and grit pack the downspout between visits. With few or no trees along the roofline, once a year in late fall is enough. Guards buy you some time, but they do not end gutter maintenance; on guarded gutters we still keep the surface clean and check that water is getting in. Residential and commercial buildings both run on these rhythms, though commercial properties tend to be scheduled on a fixed calendar while residential properties usually book by the season.
After the first visit we tell you which tier your lot actually needs. Give the crew a clean start and the schedule stays easy to keep, since cleaning and maintenance go on the same calendar.
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 has worked for San Rafael homeowners across the city and gets to the houses from the nearest base without fuss. Every homeowner gets the same start: the gutter cleaning process begins with a quote by phone or text from your stories, your approximate size and whether trees hang over the roof. A photo of the front of the house shows us the pitch, and it is easy to send from your phone. Lead time depends on the week and how many cleanings are already booked. Call (866) 435-6328 and we tell you the first open slot, so you can get your gutters booked before the schedule fills. Across California, the two busiest windows are mid to late June and late November to December, so if you want a date in those months, book early.
We call before we come, and nobody needs to be home. The crew works from the outside, lifts gutter guards when the house has them, leaves the gutters clean, and sends photos of every run and downspout to your phone. Whether you have a single-story ranch or a larger house under trees, where every twig and seed head ends up in the trough, the goal is to keep your gutters and downspouts working, catch a leak early, and protect your home from water damage. We serve surrounding areas the same way, so the booking process is identical wherever you are. Debris removal is part of every visit, and that is how we keep gutter services predictable from the first call to the final photo.
Our gutter cleaning service starts from the stories and the size of the house, and we give the figure to you by phone or text. We will not guess at it here. Once we know those two things we tell you the number, and that is the number you pay.
Most of our customers book in spring and fall. If you wait past the fall leaves, we find the wet mat backed up in the downspout, and that is when the first heavy rainfall starts to show up as overflow at the eave.
We cover every neighborhood across San Rafael, including lots with a steep landscape and a sloped yard, and we confirm the first open date when you call. Most slots come up within the week. Same-day is not something we promise without checking the schedule first.
No. The 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 inside while the ladders are up.
Yes, we flush every downspout and flow-test it at the outlet. If water is not leaving through an underground line, we tell you. Clearing a buried line is a separate job and we quote it before anyone touches it.
Yes. On a gutter system with guards, the guards keep out the leaves but not the needles, seed casings or grit, which sit on top and mat when they get wet. We leave the surface clean and check that water is still getting in.
If a clean gutter still sheets water over the edge in the rain, it is usually a slope or downspout capacity problem, not a cleaning problem. Send us a photo or a short video in the rain, and we tell you what it is rather than selling a second cleaning.
It should not. If we find something that changes the job, we stop, tell you what it is, and agree on it before we continue. The number we quoted is the number on the invoice.
Stories, size and a photo of the front by text. That is a real number, not an appointment.
