Gutter cleaning in Houston

Leaves, needles and moss filling the gutters? Fill in the form and one trusted local firm will contact you with a price to clear them. No cost to ask, no obligation to go ahead.

We arrange quotes across Houston and PA6: the old village, Crosslee, Craigends and the newer streets around them.

A village full of trees

Houston sits in the Gryffe valley with the Houston Burn running through it, and for its size it's very well wooded. Plenty of houses have big, old trees standing within a few metres of the roof. A mature tree drops far more each autumn than a young one, and it keeps dropping twigs, seed and bits of bark the rest of the year.

The water through the village keeps the air damp too. Gutters that don't dry out between showers turn green and start growing moss, and moss weighs a lot once it's wet.

Needles are the worst of it. Pines, spruce and yew shed all year round, and the needles knit into a mat that water passes through slowly, if at all. That mat slides into the top of the downpipe and stops there, so you can have a gutter that looks half clear and still overflows at one corner every time it rains.

The shelter that makes Houston a pleasant place to live works against the gutters. Debris that lands on a roof here tends to stay put rather than being blown off again. It builds up slowly, and because there's no single autumn flood of leaves, it's easy to leave it a year too long.

Old village, new estates

Houston is really two places. The old core of whitewashed cottages around Main Street and South Street was rebuilt as a planned village in the late 1700s and is now a conservation area. The houses are low, often with stone walls and older roof coverings, and some still have cast iron gutters. On those, the sensible approach is to look after what's there. Cast iron rusts quietly at the joints and a full run is heavy on its brackets, but kept clear and painted it lasts for generations.

Crosslee and Craigends are a different story: later houses, mostly with plastic gutters. They're roomy and easy to clear. The thing to watch is the brackets, which can start to give under a run that's been full of wet silt for a few winters.

Roof edges and walls

Trees close to a house don't just fill the gutter. Branches rubbing on a roof can loosen slates and ridge tiles, and wet leaves sitting in a valley hold water against the joints. If you've lost a slate in a storm or have a damp spot upstairs, the same firm handles roof repairs and can look at it on the same visit.

On roughcast walls, years of overflow often leave a crack or two below the gutter. Small areas can usually be patched; our page on roughcast repairs explains when a patch will do.

What should be included

• Every gutter emptied right down, including the matted needles and silt.
• Downpipes flushed through, with water running freely to the drain.
• Valleys and the point where gutters meet the roof cleared of leaves.
• Brackets and joints looked over, with repairs priced first.
• Fascias and soffits washed if you'd like. See fascia and soffit cleaning.
• Waste taken away.

Signs it's overdue

• Small plants or saplings growing in the gutter.
• A soft, green line of moss along the roof edge.
• Water sheeting over the gutter in steady rain.
• A downpipe that dribbles rather than flows.
• Black or green staining on the white cottage walls.

Up the valley and along the river, we also arrange quotes for gutter cleaning in Bridge of Weir, Erskine and Johnstone.