Our own crew cleans gutters up here, every downspout flushed and flow-tested, leaves and needles hauled away, and photos of every run taken once the trough is clean. The price comes from your stories, your home's size and how much tree cover hangs over the house, and the number we give you on the phone is the number on the invoice. Most of our customers book in spring and fall, and we have been on those roofs enough to know what the season leaves behind.
Quoted from stories, size and tree cover, over the phone, with nothing added once the crew is on the roof.
The price depends on how many stories the house has, its square footage and what is sitting in the gutters. Gutter cleaning services for homes up here come out as one number once those three things are known, and we give it to you over the phone or by text. The number we quote is the number we charge. Some companies price by the linear foot, which lands in a similar place once the footage is added up, but we would rather give you one number for the whole house.
On our jobs the things that move a quote are consistent. A third story, or a roof too steep to walk, means the crew works from a boom or scissor lift and that takes longer. A walk-out basement or a sloped lot raises the effective height of the eave line, so the back run sits farther off the ground than the front. Gutters nobody has opened in years come out packed with compacted buildup, and a clog left to harden is slower to clear. A run that sags under the buildup gets cleared first. Guards we have to lift, clean underneath and reseat add labor. Downspout flushing, water flow testing and debris removal are included and never billed as extras, and they leave the gutter clean. If drainage is slow at the outlet after flushing, we note it and raise it before work starts, never on the invoice.
Across California, most visits are booked for spring and fall: the spring visit lands in mid to late June and the fall visit in late November to December. The quote is built the same way on every street, from stories, size and what we find. Our quotes are for residential properties, and if the lot mixes residential and commercial buildings, say so when you call. For a written estimate, call (866) 435-6328 and we will send it. Booking regular gutter cleaning on the same schedule each year means we already know the stories and the size, so the quote rarely moves. Some owners try to clean your gutters themselves to save the fee, and a ladder on a wet pitch is where those jobs go wrong. If you text a photo of the front roofline, we can usually tell you from it whether the job looks like a standard visit or one that needs a lift.
| 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 South Lake Tahoe CA book twice a year, once in the spring after the seed and pollen drop and again in the fall after the leaves and twigs come down. Across California, the spring visit lands in mid to late June and the fall visit in late November to December. On our jobs, when we open a gutter in the spring we find seed casings and pollen paste forming a blockage in the downspout elbows. In the fall it is a wet mat that has been sitting since the trees let go, and on houses that skipped the fall visit we have seen runs sag or pull loose by the following spring, and water backs up through the gutters and downspouts. A clean trough before the fall rain is the cheapest way to protect your home from water damage.
Frequency depends on what hangs over the house. Most homes do well on the twice-a-year schedule. Under heavy tree cover, or near a busy road or a construction site where grit blows in, we see customers every three to four months, because needles and grit pack the downspout between visits and the clog builds faster than rainwater can clear it. A home with few or no trees usually needs only the fall visit. Homes with guards can go a little longer between visits, but the surface still has to be clean, since the leaves and grit sit on top of the guard, not underneath it.
After the first visit we tell you which of our gutter services your lot actually needs, based on what we found in the gutter itself and at the downspout, rather than on a schedule written for someone else's house. Between visits, flush every downspout with a hose after a heavy storm and keep your gutters clean. A rain gutter that backs up for a season can lead to structural damage, and the whole point of the job is to keep water away from your home. The surrounding areas run on the same logic: what is over the house sets the tier, and the estimate you get by phone is the number you pay.
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.
Around town, the crew works from the nearest base and runs the same process on every street. Our South Lake Tahoe gutter cleaning process starts with a call or text: tell us your stories, your approximate square footage and whether trees hang over the house, and if it is easy, a photo of the front. Every homeowner gets the same path, and that is enough for the quote. Homeowners up here who have gutter guards should say so when they book. Lead time changes with the season, and we confirm your date when you call, so the first step is simply to get in the queue. We leave the ground clean, and gutter maintenance is one visit, not a string of callbacks.
The two busy windows are the spring visit and the fall visit, when the calendar fills fastest, so booking early in those windows gives you the most choice of day. We call before we come, and nobody needs to be home, because the work is done from the outside and keeps the mess and water away from your home. A twig jammed in a run or a leak at a seam between visits is worth a call, and repeat cleanings are booked the same way. After heavy rainfall, look at the gutter from the ground, and call if water is spilling over the edge. The visit covers cleaning and maintenance together, and the invoice you get is a clean match to the quote. To get your gutters on the calendar for this season, call (866) 435-6328 and we will check what is open.
The number comes from how many stories the house has, its size and what is in the gutter system, and we give it to you by phone or text. Once we have those three things we can tell you the price, and that number is what you pay. We do not quote a range without the details, and that goes for every house we visit.
Most of our customers here book in the spring, after the seed and pollen drop, and again in the fall, after the leaves and debris come down. If you wait past the fall visit, we have found runs that sagged by the next spring, so the fall visit is the one we push hardest. Text a photo of the front of your house and we will tell you where you stand.
Our cleaning services in South Lake Tahoe are confirmed by date when you call, so we will not promise a same-day slot we cannot keep. Most openings come up within the week across South Lake Tahoe during the quieter months, and the busy spring and fall windows fill first.
No, you do not need to be home, and these are among the frequently asked questions we hear from customers up here. Our crew works outside, does not come inside, leaves each run clean before the truck leaves, and sends photos of every run and downspout to your phone. Leave the side gate unlocked, keep the landscape clear under the eaves, and keep pets inside while the ladders are up.
Yes, we flush every downspout with water and watch until the water runs clean at the bottom. Where a downspout feeds an underground line, we check that water is leaving at the outlet and tell you if it is not. Clearing a buried line is a separate job and is quoted before anyone starts.
Yes, you still need to clean your gutters, just less often. On our jobs guards keep the big leaves out, but needles, seed casings and grit still get through and turn into a wet mat on top of the guard. We clear the surface, flush the downspout and check that water is actually getting into the trough.
A rain gutter that is clean and still spills water over the edge in rain usually has a slope or capacity problem, not a cleaning problem, unless clogged downspouts were missed. Send us a photo or a short video of it in the rain and we will tell you whether the fascia or trim has started to rot. We do not sell a second cleaning for a slope problem, because the fix has to move water away from the house, and that is a different job.
It should not. The quote is built from stories, size and what we see before we start. If the crew finds something that changes the job, you hear about it and agree to it before any work begins, never after. If you have commercial properties on the same lot, tell us on the call and we will say what is in scope before anything is booked.
Stories, size and a photo of the front by text. That is a real number, not an appointment.
