Our own crew cleans gutters in Dubuque, flushes every downspout and flow-tests it, hauls the mess away and leaves the yard clean, then sends you photos of every run before we leave. The price comes from your stories, your square footage and how much tree cover hangs over the roof, and the number we give you on the phone is the number on your invoice. Across Iowa, most of our customers book in spring and fall, the two windows when the seed, pollen and leaf load are heaviest on the houses we open.
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, how much square footage sits under the roofline, and what is actually in the gutters. We give an estimate over the phone or by text from those three things, and the number we quote is the number we charge. Some companies price by the linear foot, which lands in a similar place once the length is counted, but the stories and the state of the troughs matter more than the footage alone.
On our jobs, a third story or a roof too steep to walk takes longer and needs a boom or scissor lift, which changes the quote. A walk-out basement or a sloped lot puts the back run far higher than the front suggests. Gutters nobody has opened in years come down packed solid with buildup, and gutter guards we have to lift and reseat add time. We raise any of these before work starts, never on the invoice. Flushing the gutters and downspouts, flow testing and debris removal are included, and we never bill them as extras.
Here is what the gutter cleaning process looks like on a typical visit. The crew arrives, clears any twig or needle mat from the roof valleys and the area above the gutter line, then works each run by hand. We flush every downspout with water and watch it until the water runs clean at the bottom. Where a downspout feeds an underground drainage 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 touches it. The owner gets photos of every run and downspout, before and after, on their phone, whether or not they were home.
A homeowner who has water pouring over the edge in rain, or a leak at a seam or a blockage at the elbow, usually calls us once the trough is already full. Our advice on the phone is to text us a photo of the front of the house, and we will tell you how many stories and roughly what size before you commit to a date. Most Dubuque homeowners call once and book the same way each time after that, because the process is the same every visit: the quote, the crew, the photos, the invoice.
The cleaning and maintenance schedule that works for a given lot depends on what it has around it. A house near heavy trees needs more frequent gutter cleaning service than one in an open lot. We look at what is in the troughs on the first visit and tell you what the next interval should be, and we point out what it takes to keep the troughs clean between visits. Keep your gutters on that interval and leaves and grit stay out of the downspouts. That is gutter maintenance on a schedule you can plan for.
If you want to get your gutters checked before the next rain, call (866) 435-6328 or text a photo of the roofline and we will give you the number from there.
| One story | Two stories | Three stories or steep | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1,500 sq ft | from $150 | from $195 | from $255 |
| 1,500 to 2,500 sq ft | from $170 | from $225 | from $295 |
| Over 2,500 sq ft | from $200 | from $265 | from $345 |
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.
Across Iowa, the spring visit runs late May to June, after the seed and pollen drop, and the fall visit runs late October to November, after the last leaves are down. Most Dubuque customers book both. In spring we open gutters full of seed casings and pollen paste packed into the elbows. In fall the wet mat of leaves and debris is the problem, and a clog at a downspout elbow can start a backup before the first freeze. On houses that skipped the fall visit, a run can sag, pull loose or start fascia rot by March. Snow comes to Dubuque from November through March, and the freeze that follows brings ice dams at the eave, which lift shingles from underneath when water cannot drain.
How often you clean your gutters depends on the trees around the house. Under heavy tree cover, where needles and grit pack the downspouts between visits, our customers are on a schedule of every three to four months. A house with few or no trees around it is usually fine with one visit a year in late fall. Guards change the rhythm a little, since they hold leaves off the trough, but the surface still has to be kept clean, so they do not remove the need for a visit.
On a typical lot, the gutter system carries rainwater well until the first heavy rainfall after the debris has built up, then the landscape around the foundation takes the overflow. Dubuque IA gets about 38.8 inches of precipitation a year, and May, June and July are the wettest months across Dubuque. When water flow stops at a clogged downspout, it runs along the wall instead of away from your home, and a single clog is enough to start structural damage. Regular gutter cleaning services are the cheapest insurance against it, and keeping the trough empty is the simplest way to protect your home from water damage.
For a house with a rain gutter system that has been ignored for a few seasons, the first visit is slower. We clear the trough by hand, then flush each downspout to confirm it carries water away from the house. Dubuque houses kept clean on a steady schedule come back to the same routine each visit, which keeps the work short and predictable.
Once the gutters are clean, we tell you which tier your lot actually needs. We do not guess from the street.
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 provides cleaning services in Dubuque from the nearest base, which keeps the calendar tight for the streets we already work. Booking our gutter services starts with a quote by phone or text, using your stories, your square footage and how much tree cover sits over the roof. We quote Dubuque homes the same way every time, residential and commercial alike. A photo of the house front helps if it is easy to send. Lead time is the number of days out we can get a crew to you, and we confirm the date when you call. Addresses in Dubuque and surrounding areas: call (866) 435-6328 first, and we will confirm whether the crew reaches your street.
Two windows of the year fill our calendar faster than the rest: late spring and late fall, when the spring and fall cleanings come due across the lots we know. Book early in those months if you want a specific day. We call before we come, and nobody needs to be home for the work, since the crew stays outside and keeps the yard clean.
We are the crew that answers the phone, so if a question about the job comes up after you book, you can ask it directly. That keeps the process simple: one call, one date, one invoice that matches the quote, and photos on your phone with the gutters clean when the truck leaves.
The number comes from the stories, the square footage and what is in the gutters, and we quote it by phone or text. We do not give a range on the page because a two-story house on a flat lot and one with a steep back run are not the same job.
Across Iowa, spring visits run late May to June and fall visits late October to November, and our Dubuque customers book both. If the fall visit gets skipped, the snow and freeze bring ice dams at the eave, and we usually see the sag by March. A clean trough going into winter gives the freeze less to hold.
This page covers houses, not commercial properties. For a commercial building, call us and we will tell you whether the crew takes it, residential and commercial jobs alike, before you commit to a date.
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. The yard is left as clean as it was found.
Yes. We flush every downspout, check the gutters and downspouts for flow, and confirm that water is leaving at the outlet. Clearing an underground drain line is a separate job, and we quote it before anyone touches it.
Yes, though less often. On our jobs we find needles and seed casings sitting on top of the guard, and grit settled underneath, so the surface still has to be kept clean.
A gutter that is clean and still sheets water over the edge is a slope or downspout-size problem, not a debris problem or a clog. Send us a photo or a short video in the rain and we will tell you what it is. We do not sell a second cleaning for a slope problem.
It will not change for the things we can see from the ground. If the crew finds something that changes the job, you hear it and agree to it before they start, never after the work is done.
Stories, size and a photo of the front by text. That is a real number, not an appointment.
