How Often Should You Clean Your Gutters? It Depends on Your Trees

Have them checked at least once a year, before summer storm season. How often they need a clean after that comes down to what's growing over your roof. Gutters under gums or palms fill far faster than gutters under open sky. If you can see debris above the gutter edge, or plants growing out of it, don't wait.

There's no single number of cleans a year that suits every roof. A house backing onto bush fills its gutters much sooner than a house with no trees close by, even on the same street.

Government storm advice points the same way. The Queensland Government's advice on preparing your home (opens in a new tab) says to clean gutters and downpipes so water can drain away as quickly as possible. Brisbane City Council puts your roof, gutters and downpipes on its list of things to check and maintain (opens in a new tab).

Before the storms start. Brisbane City Council says storm season there typically runs from October to March (opens in a new tab), and bushfire season from August to December. It says the best time to get your home ready is outside both. Going by those dates, April to July is the quiet window for a clean.

Missed that window? Aim to have the clean done before October. Then your gutters are clear for the first big downpour. And if anything needs fixing, there's still time to sort it before the rain. Our storm season checklist has the other jobs to do before then.

Don't treat October as a hard line, though. The council says Brisbane can get intense storms in spring, as well as in the hot, humid summer months.

The more leaf over your roof, the more often you'll need a clean. Gum trees drop leaves and bark all year. Jacarandas shed for months, and palms keep dropping too. So a gutter under big trees fills much sooner than one under open sky.

Leafy suburbs show it best. In The Gap, homes sit right against bushland, and the stringybarks and gums there shed bark and leaf all the time. A gutter there can refill within weeks of a clean in a dry, windy spring. In Kenmore, old gardens put poincianas, figs, jacarandas and gums over roofs right across the suburb. Each drops something different, and a gutter there usually holds a mix.

Small stuff fills a gutter its own way. Jacaranda flowers and fine leaflets wash in and pack down. Pine needles knit into a mat that holds water. One owner on the CHOICE Community forum (opens in a new tab) says that if you're looking at plastic guard, check its openings won't trap or let through smaller leaves, like jacaranda and poinciana, or pine needles.

Another owner there, whose house is overhung by gum trees, reports clearing the gutters two or three times a year: before and during fire season, and in late winter before the spring rain. That's one home's routine, so yours may look different.

If that sounds like your place and you'd rather not keep booking cleans, look at leaf guard for homes under gums. The mesh goes over your existing gutters, so leaves stay out and rain keeps flowing to the downpipes.

Less often, but still have them checked before storm season. Leaves can still blow in from trees down the street, and an open gutter is where most birds build. A quick look from the ground after a big storm tells you if anything's building up.

Storms bring their own mess, too. A summer storm can dump leaf and grit off the roof in minutes. So even with no trees nearby, keep the yearly check.

Look up from the ground. Plants growing out of the gutter, leaves poking over the edge, or water spilling over the side in rain all mean it's time. So does water running down the wall under the gutter during a storm. You can check all of that without a ladder.

Those signs matter because a gutter full of leaves has nowhere to put storm water. It goes over the fascia or back under the roof, or it sheets down the wall into the garden beds. If yours are clear and still spill, here's why gutters overflow when they aren't blocked.

That's your call. But it's ladder work, and ladder falls send people to hospital. A Queensland study of ladder falls (opens in a new tab) looked at 177 people who came to two emergency departments. The typical patient was a man over 50 using a household ladder. Most falls happened because the ladder moved, or the person slipped or missed a step.

The researchers' safety advice includes avoiding the job where you can, and setting the ladder up properly when you can't. There's more on that research in our guide to how risky gutter cleaning is.

Some roofs make it an easy call. A second storey, or a block that falls away at the back, puts the gutter well out of reach. Old tiles crack underfoot. We're fully insured for roof work, and the quote is free.

If your gutters are due, we'll clear out the leaves, twigs and sludge, then check that water runs along each gutter and out the downpipe. Our gutter cleaning service covers Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. You don't need gutter guard to book, and the quote is free.

If you'd rather not book a clean every year, ask us about gutter guard while we're there. Every install includes a free gutter clean.