The Importance of Maintaining Your Gutter Cleaning Kit.

Having had my own exterior cleaning business, I know how dirty you and your kit can get when cleaning roofs & gutters, especially in Autumn when removing wet clumps of earth and soggy leaves. Coming from a forces background, I learnt that looking after your kit means your kit will look after you!

That’s why I had a strict cleaning regime with my team in looking after our equipment. Keeping my gutter vacuums clean was especially important, due to the muck they removed in one day. The boys may have thought I was nagging (actually, I know they did), but I think they appreciated the importance of what I was trying to teach them.

Here are a few tips I passed on to my team when cleaning our vacs!

Onsite

Always have a bucket of water to hand to suck through the pipes and clear any potential blockages when cleaning gutters.
When emptying the waste, quickly check the entry port to ensure that it’s debris-free.
Use the blow function periodically, pointing the hose into an empty bucket to clear any clogged debris in the hose.

Offsite – At the end of the day.

Use a hose pipe to wash through all the poles and attachments to clear any dirt build-up. Wipe the inside of your poles with a cloth to remove any grit, and spray some silicone inside the ends to prevent them from sticking or locking together.
Wash out the drum and entry port.
Check and clean the filter and fit the spare filter while it dries. I always had two filters for this reason.
Unscrew the plastic filter housing, clean the grill and float inside, dry and replace.
The boys would also wipe down all the bags, inspection poles, cameras and monitors.

Our equipment and my team needed to look the part when arriving at cleaning jobs. Looking after your kit and regularly servicing it is essential- and both my skyVac vacuums lasted my 14 years in the cleaning industry! So look after your kit, and it will look after you!

- Richard Marshall

TOP TIP: If your vacuum is getting tired and losing power, then get it booked in for a service! Our specialist technicians will get your vac fighting fit for their next round with the gutters.