Gutter Cleaning and Downpipe Flush — Mountview Road, Malvern

This owner does the right thing and does it on time. The gutters here are cleared every six months, and they were not the problem. The downpipes were. A gutter clean takes out the coarse material, the leaf you can see and lift out. What it does not take out is the fine fraction: broken-down leaf, grit washed off the roof, moss and tile sediment. That travels with every rain, and it does not sit in the gutter waiting politely for the next visit. It goes into the downpipe, settles wherever the flow slows, and compacts there. So the gutter stays clean on a schedule while the blockage quietly builds in the one part of the system the schedule never touches.

The downpipes were flushed under pressure from the top, and each one was then checked for flow at the outlet rather than assumed clear because water had gone in at the other end. Pressure is the right tool for this because a compacted plug does not move for a garden hose. It is also where the honesty has to sit: if a line will not clear, or the blockage turns out to be past the downpipe and into the stormwater drain, that is a plumber's job and we say so rather than keep working at it. The gutters were cleared as they are every six months, and the glass was done inside and out while that ran. Three technicians on a single-storey house means the three tasks run alongside each other instead of one after another, which is how the whole visit came in at two hours.

• Full gutter run cleared on the owner's six-monthly cycle
• Downpipes flushed under pressure rather than hosed through
• Flow checked at each outlet after flushing, not assumed
• All windows cleaned inside and out
• Three technicians running the three tasks in parallel

• Three technicians, two hours
• Downpipes running clear at every outlet
• Gutters, downpipes and glass all finished in one visit