Our own crew cleans gutters in Melrose, flushing every downspout, flow-testing each run, hauling the debris away and sending you photos of every run before we leave. The price comes from your stories, the size of the house and how much tree cover hangs over the roof, and the number we give on the phone is the number on the invoice. Most of our Melrose customers book in spring and fall, and we have been doing it that way across Massachusetts long enough to know which problems show up when.
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. We quote it over the phone or by text from those three things, and the number we quote is the number we charge. Our cleaning services in Melrose are priced that way for every homeowner, whether the house is a small colonial or a large lot. Cleaning and maintenance visits are quoted on the same three inputs. Repeat cleanings get quoted the same way. Other companies price by the linear foot, and that lands in a similar place once the length is measured, but a per-foot figure hides the things that actually cost time on a roof.
On our jobs, the things that move the quote are a third story or a roof too steep to walk, a walk-out basement or sloped lot that raises the effective height of the roofline, gutters nobody has opened in years and packed solid with compacted muck, and gutter guards we have to lift and reseat before we can reach the trough. A clog low in a downspout can back water up the whole run, so every downspout gets flushed as part of the quote. In the gutter cleaning process, any blockage low in the run gets cleared before the flush, not after. Downspout flushing, flow testing and haul-off are included in every quote and are never billed as extras. Gutter maintenance is priced the same way, and we bag the leaves and carry them away from your home before we leave. Clearing the run is how you protect your home from water damage, so the quote covers all of it. Once a run is clean, we check that it flows. If something we find changes the job, you hear about it before work starts, never on the invoice.
Melrose homeowners come to us for the same reasons: a wet fascia board they noticed after a storm, a run that looked fine from the driveway but was full of seeds, or a leak that showed up on a ceiling. A homeowner who waits for the first heavy rainfall often finds the leak already inside. In one recent Melrose job the house had two stories and a heavy tree canopy over the back run, and what we found was a compacted leaf mat that had held water against the fascia; that is the kind of job that takes longer than the front of the house suggests. Read the case. Get your gutters quoted now, before the spring or fall rush fills the calendar. Call (866) 435-6328 or text a photo of the front of the house and we will give you a written estimate for your lot before we book a date.
| 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.
Across Massachusetts, the spring visit falls in late May to June, after the seed and pollen drop, and the fall visit falls in late October to November, after the last leaves are down. Most of our Melrose customers book both, since keeping your gutters clear through the wet months is what prevents freeze damage. Every visit starts with a clean trough and a check of every downspout. When we open a gutter in May we find seeds, seed casings and pollen paste packed into the downspout elbows, and a clean run in April can be clogged by June. In the fall it is the wet leaf mat, leaves and debris that rot in place over winter, and on houses that skipped the fall visit we have seen runs sag or pull loose by March under the weight of ice. Left through a freeze, that trapped water turns into structural damage at the fascia, and clogged downspouts are usually the first place it starts.
Under heavy tree cover, every three to four months, because needles and grit pack the downspouts between visits. A twig wedged in an elbow stops the flow just as a wad of seed casings does. A gutter system with a clog in one downspout can back up along the whole run, and heavy rainfall shows it fast. Good drainage at the foot of the house depends on the gutters and downspouts together, so the job is to keep the trough clean and carry water away from the foundation. Where the landscape slopes toward the foundation, a downspout that dumps close to the wall sends rainwater right back to it. Near a busy road or a construction site the same schedule applies, since the grit is finer and sits in the trough. A lot with few or no trees is usually fine on a once-a-year schedule in late fall. Gutters with guards get cleaned less often, but a rain gutter with guards still needs the surface cleared, because the debris sits on top of the guard, not inside the trough.
We book the same way whether the house sits on a quiet street or near a commercial corridor. Our gutter cleaning services follow one calendar across Melrose, and the spring and fall windows fill first. If you are on a commercial property here, the schedule runs the same way, with twice-yearly visits as the default and extra visits when the roofline and drains need them. Once the gutters are clean and the downspouts run, we tell you which tier your lot actually needs, so you do not have to guess.
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 clean Melrose homes on the same routes that show up on our booking calendar, and the surrounding areas run on those routes too, so the crew knows the street before it knows the house. Booking starts with a quote by phone or text from your stories, the size of the house and the tree cover, plus a photo of the front if that is easy to send. Lead time depends on the season and on how many visits are already on the route that week, and we give you the first date we can actually hold rather than a slot that will slip. Our gutter cleaning service covers residential properties, and our gutter services stay the same whether you call in March or in October. Regular gutter cleaning keeps the route predictable for both of us.
The two busy windows of the year are late spring and late fall, when the seed drop and the leaf drop hit every block at once. If you want a date in those windows, call early. We call before we come, and nobody needs to be home for the exterior work. Residential and commercial jobs are booked the same way, with commercial properties scheduled per building. Spring and fall fill first, so book early for both. Debris removal is part of the visit, so nothing is left on the lawn.
When the crew is on the route, the visit is the same as anywhere else we work: gutters cleared first, flush every downspout, and photos of every run sent to your phone before the truck leaves. Once the trough is clean, the crew checks the slope. A run that holds water after a storm usually has a sag or a buildup at the low point, and that is what we check first. Before you clean your gutters yourself, think about the ladder and the roof pitch, because that is where the risk sits. If a run still overflows after we leave, that is a slope problem and we say so, since a clean trough cannot fix water flow that the slope will not give it. Call (866) 435-6328 or text a photo of the roofline and we will book a date.
The number comes from the stories, the size of the house and what is in the gutters. Call (866) 435-6328 or text us a photo of the front, and we will give you an estimate for Melrose MA from those three things.
When we work the route, the spring visit lands after seeds and pollen drop, and the fall visit lands after the last leaves. Rainwater has to get out, and a clogged run is what stops it, so houses that skip the fall visit tend to show sagging runs by March after the first ice. If you keep your gutters on that rhythm, you rarely have a surprise.
Most slots come up within the week, and we confirm the date when you call so you know exactly when the crew arrives.
No. Our crew works outside, does not come inside, and sends photos of every run before the truck leaves, which helps protect your home. Leave the side gate unlocked and keep pets inside while the ladders are up.
Yes, every downspout is flushed, and we check where the gutters and downspouts send the water so drainage stays on track. Clearing a buried line is a separate job and we quote it before anyone touches it.
Yes. Under guards we find needles, seed casings and grit sitting on top of the mesh, and once it gets wet, water runs over the front edge instead of into the trough. Our gutter cleaning process lifts the panels, clears underneath and reseats them.
A clean gutter that still sheets water over the edge is a slope, capacity or downspout-size problem, not a debris problem. We work Melrose MA and the surrounding areas, and the answer is the same: send us 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 should not. Anything that changes the job is raised and agreed before work starts, never added on the invoice. The number we quote on the phone is the number we charge, and keeping a clean run is how you protect your home from water damage.
Stories, size and a photo of the front by text. That is a real number, not an appointment.
