Gutter Cleaning — St Helen's Road, Hawthorn East

A brush guard sits inside the gutter rather than over it, and that is the whole problem. Mesh keeps debris on top where rain can move it. Bristles catch fine material and hold it between them, and because the brush occupies the channel, the gutter loses capacity long before it looks blocked. What collects is not leaf litter either: it breaks down into soil, and soil in a gutter grows things.

Every length of brush had to come out before anything could be cleaned. Each section was pulled, washed separately, the soil packed under it cleared, then the brush refitted. On 120 metres that is the job, three times over. Terracotta decided the access: the tiles are brittle, so the run was worked from ladders with nobody standing on the roof.

• Brush guard removed in sections along 120 metres
• Each section washed out separately before refitting
• Compacted soil cleared from the channel beneath
• Downpipes checked and cleared
• Brush guard refitted along the full run
• Worked from ladders, no foot traffic on terracotta

• Full 120 metre run cleared and draining
• Guard cleaned, not left packed with soil
• Channel capacity restored, not just the surface
• No cracked or displaced tiles