Our own crew cleans gutters across Swampscott MA, running water through every outlet, testing the flow, hauling the leaves away and photographing every run before we leave. Our gutter services start at the high edge and end at the outlet, so a clean run is one that actually drains. The price comes from the number of stories, the size of the house and how much tree cover hangs over it, and the number we give you on the phone is the number on the invoice. Most of our Swampscott homes book in the spring and fall, and we have been on these houses long enough to know why those months work.
Quoted from stories, size and tree cover, over the phone, with nothing added once the crew is on the roof.
The price depends on stories, square footage and what is sitting in the gutters. Every homeowner we quote gets asked about those three things by phone or text, and the number we give is the number we charge. Gutter cleaning services that price by the linear foot land in a similar place once the stories and the access are counted, though the per-foot method hides the parts that change the job.
On our jobs, the things that move a quote are consistent. A third story or a roof too steep to walk takes longer and needs a boom or scissor lift. A walk-out basement or a sloped landscape raises the effective height of the roofline, so the back run sits farther up than the front. Gutters that have not been opened in years come out full of compacted muck, and a buildup of leaves and grit takes more hands than a light seasonal load. Gutters left that long can also pull loose from their hangers, and that kind of structural damage shows up in the photos we send. Guards we have to lift and reseat add time on either end. The crew clears every drop pipe, tests the flow and handles debris removal as part of the price, and none of it is billed as an extra. Anything that changes the job gets raised before work starts, not on the invoice.
The houses here range from older homes with short runs of gutter to larger properties with long, wide troughs, and the clog pattern changes with each. On a Swampscott job we find that leaves and debris pile up along the low corners of the trough first, so the low spot shows at the far end before it shows anywhere else. A twig or a wad of shingle grit wedged there can do the same. When a customer asks what happened to a run that has pulled loose from its hangers, we check the pitch, the drainage at the outlet and whether the water flow reaches the drop pipe at all. The fix is a clean trough when the clog is the cause, and the report when it is something else.
Our crew treats the commercial properties we service the same way: the number is set by the building, the access and the drain layout, and nothing is added after the crew is up the ladder. The same is true for residential and commercial work. Residential properties with a steep front roof and a clogged rain gutter at the back cost what the job actually takes, and we say so before anyone climbs. Clogged downspouts that feed into an underground line are checked at the outlet to confirm they send water away from your home; clearing the buried line itself is quoted separately, before anyone touches it, and it is the only part of the visit that is ever priced on its own.
| 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.
On our Swampscott MA jobs, the pattern matches the rest of Massachusetts: most customers book twice a year, in late May to June after the spring seed and pollen drop, and again in late October or November after the last leaves are down. When we open a gutter here in May we find seed casings and pollen paste packed into the drop elbows. In November it is the wet leaf mat, and on houses that skipped the fall visit we have seen runs sag by March under the weight of ice, with the hangers pulling loose and the fascia starting to rot. Heavy rainfall is the real test: the town averages 47.3 inches of precipitation a year, with March, October and December the wettest months, so rainwater has to leave through a clear gutter when it counts. Each gutter cleaning service visit in either window clears what built up since the last one, so the gutters start the wet months empty.
Under heavy tree cover, or near a busy road or a construction site, regular gutter cleaning tightens to every three to four months, because needles, grit and road dust pack the drop pipes between visits. A house with few or no trees can usually keep your gutters working with one visit a year in late fall. Guards change the rhythm but do not end gutter maintenance: they stop the leaves, and we still clear the surface and check the water flow at the gutter line, because a gutter that looks clean can still have a blockage. After the first visit we tell you which of those tiers your gutters and downspouts actually need, based on what we found in the gutter rather than a schedule printed on a card. Call (866) 435-6328 and we will set the first visit from what we find.
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 has worked the older neighborhoods here, where the trees are big, and our gutter services reach surrounding areas from the nearest base. Call (866) 435-6328 or text a photo of the house front, and we will book a date that fits. The estimate is built from stories, size and tree cover, and it comes back to you by phone or text. Lead time depends on how full the calendar is that week, and we give you a date when you call rather than a promise we cannot keep.
The two busy windows are the late spring and the late fall, because those are when most homeowners here remember to look up. Booking early in those months gets your cleanings on the calendar before it fills. We call before we come, and nobody needs to be home for an exterior job. If you want to protect your home from water damage, or a leak you already suspect, ask for the visit in the window before the rain season, when the drainage is still clear and the flow test tells us what a full storm will do to a clean gutter.
Swampscott gutter cleaning is quoted from the stories and the size of the house, and we give the number to you by phone or text. We do not quote a range without those details, because the same two-story house can take very different time depending on what is in the gutters.
Most of our customers book in late spring and again in late fall, the spring visit after the seed and pollen drop and the fall visit after the last leaves. Plan ahead so you can get your gutters on the calendar before the wet leaf mat and the first ice arrive. If you wait past that window to clean your gutters, that is when ice damage starts, and the heavy rainfall in March, October and December makes any overflow worse.
Availability for our cleaning services in Swampscott depends on the calendar that week. We confirm a date when you call so you know exactly when the crew is coming.
No, you do not need to be home. The gutter cleaning process happens outside, the crew does not come inside, and photos of every run and downspout go to your phone before the truck leaves. Leave the side gate unlocked and keep pets inside while the ladders are up, and that is the whole list.
Yes, we flush every downspout and test the flow so we can see the water reach the outlet. Where a drop pipe feeds an underground drain line, we check the outlet; clearing the buried line is quoted separately, before we touch it.
Yes, guarded gutters still need cleaning and maintenance. Guards stop the leaves, but needles, seed casings and grit sit on top of the guard and turn to paste, and we clean that surface and check the water flow. The job is shorter under guards, but it is not gone.
If the gutter system is clean and rainwater still sheets over the edge in the rain, the problem is usually slope, capacity or drop size, not a cleaning problem. 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 should not, and a clean job should match the quote. The quote is built from stories, size and tree cover, and anything we find that changes the job is raised with you before work starts. The number we quote is the number on the invoice.
Stories, size and a photo of the front by text. That is a real number, not an appointment.
