Our own crew cleans gutters in Chelsea MA, checks the gutters and downspouts, hauls the debris away and leaves the yard clean, and takes 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 house, and the number we give you on the phone is the number on the invoice. Across Massachusetts, most of our customers book in the spring and fall, and we have been doing this work on those visits for years.
Quoted from stories, size and tree cover, over the phone, with nothing added once the crew is on the roof.
The price depends on the number of stories, the square footage and what is actually sitting in the gutters. Every homeowner gets the same gutter cleaning process: we quote a clean, flat price 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 land in a similar place once the length is counted, but we would rather give you one number for your house. Our cleaning services in Chelsea follow that same rule.
On our jobs, a third story or a roof too steep to walk is the biggest single change. A walk-out basement or a sloped lot raises the effective height of the eave, so the crew needs more equipment to reach the back run. Gutters that have had no gutter maintenance in years come down packed with compacted buildup, which takes longer than a light cleaning. A clean run goes quickly, and the time goes to the packed ones. A single twig jammed in a downspout elbow can slow the flush, and a run with poor drainage at the outlet takes longer to check. Gutter guards we have to lift and reseat add time as well. A small leak at a seam can add a few minutes once the trough is empty. Flushing, flow testing and haul-away are included in the quote and are never billed as extras. Everything that comes out of the gutters is bagged and carried away from your home. If something changes the job once we are on site, you hear about it before any work starts, not on the invoice.
Here in Chelsea, we have seen the quote move most on houses with heavy tree cover, where the load is larger and the gutters clog faster. The crew checks the gutters and the roofline before anything is quoted, so you get a clean quote that reflects what is really there. The wettest months here are March, October and December, so heavy rainfall lands on gutters that are already full. Chelsea homeowners who want to know what their house will come to can call (866) 435-6328 or text a photo of the front of the house, and we will give them a figure to plan around.
| 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 cleanings a year, and gutter cleaning services are planned around the spring and fall windows. Across Massachusetts, the spring visit falls in late May to June, after the seed and pollen drop. The fall visit runs from November to early December, once the leaves and debris are down. When we open a gutter in the spring, we find seeds packed into the elbows where the pipe turns, and a paste of pollen across the trough. In the fall it is the wet leaf mat, and on houses that skipped the fall visit we have seen runs sag or pull loose by March under the weight of ice.
How often a gutter needs attention depends on the trees around the house, so regular cleaning is planned around the lot, not the calendar. Under heavy tree cover, every three to four months is what we see on our jobs, because needles and grit pack the gutters between visits. A house with few or no trees, and a simple landscape, usually does fine with one visit a year in the fall. Houses with gutter guards need less frequent cleaning, but the surface still has to be kept clean, because grit sits on top of the guard and the water never gets in. A clean rain gutter helps protect your home from water damage, and it is the easiest way to keep your gutters working through the year.
Gutters across Chelsea behave the way the rest of the region does, with the freeze and thaw of winter adding stress to any blockage that was missed in the fall. Clogged gutters left alone over the winter tend to show up as rot and structural damage in the spring, so the fall visit is the one most worth booking. Rainwater that cannot get past a full trough spills over the front edge. Storms add their own load to a full trough, and a clean gutter system carries water away from the house, with good water flow even in a hard storm. Clogged downspouts are the first thing we flush on each visit. After the first visit we tell you which cleaning schedule your lot actually needs, and we keep the photos so you can see what changed.
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.
We provide cleaning services on Chelsea homes and in the surrounding areas, and the crew works out of its nearest base, so the trip is short and the crew leaves the yard clean. Booking works by phone or text. Tell us the number of stories, the rough size of the house and whether trees hang over the house, and send a photo of the front of the house if that is easy. We give you a price from that and set a date once you agree to it. Lead time depends on the season and how full the calendar is, and we will tell you what is open when you call. Debris removal is part of the visit, not an add-on.
The busy stretches are the spring and the fall, when the seed and pollen come down and when the leaves are finished. If you want to get your gutters done in one of those windows, call early and ask for the next open date. If you want to clean your gutters before the next storm, the same call works. We call before we come, and nobody needs to be home for the visit, since the crew works from the outside of the house. Booking regular gutter cleaning takes one call, and cleaning and maintenance can go on the same visit.
Our process covers residential properties and commercial properties alike, and the work for residential and commercial clients is booked the same way, so if you manage a building as well as your own home, the booking and the photo report look the same. Once a customer starts a gutter cleaning service with us, most keep to the same schedule, which makes it easier to plan around the fall and spring visits. Anything beyond the gutter work goes on the quote as one of our gutter services, and nothing is added without your say-so.
The number comes from the stories, the size of the house and what is in the gutters. We give an estimate by phone or text, and that is the number on the invoice. There is no fixed figure I can give you without knowing those three things first.
Our spring visit falls in late May or June, after the seeds and pollen come down, and the fall visit runs from November to early December, once the leaves are done. If the fall visit is skipped, we often find sagging runs by March on houses that froze with a full gutter.
Most slots come up within the week, and we confirm the exact date when you call. Same-day depends on the calendar that day, so it is worth calling early in the morning if you need it quickly.
No. Our crew works outside, leaves the yard clean, does not come into the house, 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. Each outlet is flushed until it runs clean and flow-tested as part of the cleaning. Where a pipe feeds an underground 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.
Yes, usually less often, but the surface still has to be kept clean to keep your gutters working. On our jobs we find needles and seed casings sitting on top of guards and roof grit underneath, and once that mat is wet, the water runs off the front edge instead of going in.
A clean gutter that still spills in the rain has a slope or capacity problem, not a clog. 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 visit for a slope problem.
It should not. Anything that changes the job is raised with you and agreed before the crew starts work, so the invoice matches the quote. If you have questions about the number, call (866) 435-6328 before we arrive.
Stories, size and a photo of the front by text. That is a real number, not an appointment.
