Gutter Cleaning Cost UK & How Often To Do It (2026)

What does gutter cleaning cost in the UK?

Most homeowners pay £60 to £160 to have their gutters cleared, depending on the size of the house and how the gutters are reached. A terraced house is at the bottom of that range; a large detached with awkward access at the top.

It is one of the cheapest jobs on a house and one of the most skipped, which is why blocked gutters cause so much of the damp we get called out to.

Gutter cleaning costs by property

Typical UK gutter cleaning costs (2026)

Property	What's involved	Typical cost
Terraced house	Front and rear, gutters cleared and flushed	£60 – £90
Semi-detached	All elevations, downpipes checked	£80 – £120
Detached	All elevations, more run to cover	£110 – £160
Bungalow	Longer run, easier access	£70 – £110
Blocked downpipe	Rodded and flushed through	£40 – £90 extra
Three-storey / restricted access	Tower or scaffold needed	£180 – £400

Most jobs are done from a ladder or with a gutter vacuum from the ground. Anything needing a tower or scaffold costs considerably more, so it is worth combining with other work at height.

How often should gutters be cleaned?

Twice a year is the honest answer for most houses — late autumn once the leaves are down, and again in spring. If you have no trees nearby you can stretch it to once a year.

Clear them more often if any of these apply:

• Overhanging trees, particularly anything that drops needles or small leaves
• A moss-covered roof, since moss washes down and packs into the outlets
• Nearby building work, which fills gutters with dust and debris
• A history of birds nesting in the roofline

After a re-roof, have them checked once at the end of the first autumn. Small offcuts and mortar debris can find their way in during the work.

What a blocked gutter actually does

Water down the wall

The usual first sign

Overflowing gutters soak the brickwork. Over a wet winter that shows inside as damp patches on the upstairs walls, particularly on the weather side.

Rotten fascia and soffit

£800+ to put right

Water sitting in an overflowing gutter runs back against the board behind it. Timber fascias rot; even uPVC ones fail at the fixings.

Rotten rafter feet

Structural

Water tracking down the wall plate rots the ends of the rafters. This is the expensive one, and it is only found when the roof comes off.

Damaged foundations

Worst case

A downpipe discharging at the base of the wall instead of into the drain saturates the ground against the foundation.

A £90 gutter clean is the cheapest insurance on a house. The jobs it prevents start at ten times that.

Signs your gutters need clearing

• Water spilling over the front edge during rain rather than running to the downpipe
• Plants or grass growing out of the gutter — a definite sign
• Staining or green algae streaks down the wall below the gutter line
• Sagging sections, where the weight of debris has pulled the brackets
• A downpipe that stays dry while the gutter above it is overflowing
• Damp patches on upstairs internal walls after heavy rain

Should you do it yourself?

On a single-storey extension or a low garage that you can reach safely from a stable ladder on firm level ground, yes — scoop it out, bag it, and flush through with a hose to check the downpipe runs.

Above that, no. Ladder falls are among the most common serious accidents in UK homes, and gutter cleaning is the single most common reason people go up one. The job is not worth the risk at £90.

Worth doing at the same time

If someone is already up there, get them to check a few things while they are:

• Whether the gutter still falls toward the outlet, or has sagged
• Joints and brackets — a dripping joint is a five-minute fix on the day
• The state of the fascias and soffits behind the gutter
• Moss build-up on the roof itself, which is what fills the gutters again by spring — see our guide to roof moss removal
• Slipped or cracked tiles visible from the eaves

If the gutters are sagging, leaking at multiple joints or are the old grey uPVC that has gone brittle, replacing them costs £500–£1,200 on a typical semi and is usually the better value. Our guttering and downpipes page covers that.

Booking a clean

We clear gutters across Gosforth, Jesmond, Kenton, Heaton and the wider North East, and tell you if anything else up there needs attention while we are at it. Our gutter cleaning page has the details.

Gutters overflowing?

Cleared, flushed and checked over. Gosforth, Newcastle and the North East.

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