Our own crew cleans gutters in Spencer IA, every downspout flushed and flow-tested, debris hauled away, and 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, and we keep the same crew on each job from start to finish.
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 large it is and what is sitting in the gutters. A Spencer homeowner usually asks about this first, so here is how we price it. Our cleaning services in Spencer are quoted 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, and that lands in a similar place per foot, but on our jobs the stories and roofline height matter more than the footage alone.
What moves the quote is usually what the crew finds once the ladder is up. A third story or a roof too steep to walk takes more time and more care. A walk-out basement or a sloped lot raises the effective height of the back run. Gutters that have not been opened in years come down heavy with compacted buildup, and a gutter guard we have to lift and reseat adds a step. A clean gutter is simple to quote, and a neglected one is not. Downspout flushing, flow testing and debris removal are included in every quote and are never billed as extras. If something changes the job, you hear it before work starts, never on the invoice.
On our Spencer jobs the downspout elbows are where the water stops, because leaves, twig pieces and grit collect there and cause a blockage. Most of the time a clog at the elbow is the whole problem, and it can leak water down the wall. On a two-story house under mature trees, what we find at the elbows usually sets the time on the job. We photograph every run before and after, and the photos go to your phone before the truck leaves. The work is gutter maintenance, and a gutter cleaning process that starts with a flush of each downspout shows you what the system is really doing, including the water flow at the bottom. Clearing those elbows keeps the downspouts clean and the water away from your home. It also helps you protect your home from water damage over the long run. Heavy rainfall is when that matters most, so it pays to clean your gutters before the storm season. Our cleaning and maintenance happen on the same visit, so nothing waits for a second trip. If you want the number for your own house, call (866) 435-6328 or text a photo of the front of the house and ask for a written estimate; that is the quickest way to get your gutters checked and quoted in one visit.
| 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.
Most of the Spencer cleanings we do book twice a year, once in late spring after the seed and pollen drop, and once in late fall after the last leaves come down. When we open a gutter here in late spring we usually find seeds, seed casings and pollen paste packed into the elbows. In fall it is the wet leaf buildup, and on houses that skipped the fall visit we see runs that sag or pull loose by March.
Under heavy tree cover, or near a busy road or a construction site, our customers are on a schedule of every three to four months, because needles and grit pack the trough between visits. Keeping up with regular gutter cleaning on that schedule keeps the fascia sound. With few or no trees, once a year in late fall is enough for most houses. Gutter guards change the work more than the frequency: they keep out most leaves, but the surface still has to be kept clean and the downspout still has to be flushed. A yard with a lot of landscape beds and mulch sends more grit into the trough. Across Iowa the gutter system tends to need the same attention, so the schedule follows the lot rather than the calendar alone.
On a Spencer job we tell you which schedule your lot actually needs after the first visit, based on what is in the gutters and how the water flow looks at the outlet. Rainwater that finds a blocked run has nowhere to go but over the front edge. Leaves and debris left in the trough can start to rot the fascia behind it, which is one reason we do not let a run go a full year on a heavy lot. Most of the time, a clog that goes unnoticed for a season is how water ends up running behind a rain gutter, and that is also the most common cause of structural damage we see in the photos. Keeping the water away from the house is what the schedule is for, and it is cheaper to keep your gutters clean than to repair. On a Spencer job a flush that runs clear at the bottom is the first sign the system works. Call (866) 435-6328 to book the first visit, and we will tell you which tier fits your house once we are on the ladder.
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 Spencer and the surrounding areas from the nearest base, and we have cleaned gutters on Spencer homes throughout the city. Our gutter cleaning service reaches the outlying homes too. Booking our gutter cleaning services starts with a quote by phone or text. Give us the stories, the rough square footage and whether trees hang over the roof, and send a photo of the front of the house if that is easy. Lead time depends on the calendar, and we will tell you the first open date when you call.
The busiest windows are late spring and fall, when our calendar fills fastest. We call before we come, and nobody needs to be home for the visit. Booking early in either window gives you more choice of date, and a slot held for a few weeks is easier to confirm than one requested at the last minute.
Our crew handles residential properties and commercial properties, and the process for a single house is the same whether it is a family home or a small office building. Every visit includes flushing and flow testing, so you know the water is leaving the house and the drainage works. Every visit leaves the gutter clean and the downspout flowing. That is how we keep the water away from the foundation and the fascia, and clearing any clog is the core of what we do on every job. Call (866) 435-6328 or text a photo of the roofline to start your booking.
The price comes from the stories and the size of the house, and we give it to you by phone or text before we book. We cannot give a fixed figure without those two details, and the number we quote is the number on your invoice.
Our customers here usually book in late spring and again in late fall. If the fall visit is skipped, we often find runs that sag under the weight of wet leaves by the following March, so the fall visit is the one most worth keeping.
Most open slots come up within the week, and we confirm the exact date when you call. We will not promise a same-day visit we cannot keep, and for any of our gutter services the date is confirmed on the phone before anything is booked.
No. Our crew works outside and does not come inside. Leave the side gate unlocked and keep pets indoors while the ladders are up, and we will send photos of every run to your phone before we leave.
Yes, our crew checks the gutters and each downspout on every visit, flushing every one and watching it until the water runs clear at the bottom. If a line drains underground and the water is not leaving, that usually means a clog farther down, and we tell you. Clearing a buried line is a separate job that we quote before anyone touches it.
Yes. On our jobs guards keep out most leaves, but needles, seed casings and grit still sit on top of the guard and mat when they get wet. We keep the surface clean, flush each downspout and check the water flow.
A gutter that is clean and still sheets water over the edge in rain has a slope or downspout-size problem, not a debris problem. Send us a photo or a short video of it in the rain and we will tell you what it is.
It should not. If the crew finds something that changes the job, you hear it and agree to it before work starts, never after. The number on the phone is the number on the invoice.
Stories, size and a photo of the front by text. That is a real number, not an appointment.
