Clean spouting isn’t worth breaking your back for.
Cleaning your spouting is a necessary evil, and it’s certainly something you can do yourself if your house is single story. To begin you’ll need a ladder, a trowel to remove the bulk of the debris, and a long hose to flush any remaining leaves down the downpipes.

It will also pay to wear a mask to prevent mould spores from finding their way into your lungs, and a decent pair of gloves is a must, those blue nitrile ones are no match for sheets of iron, and rest assured, you will graze your knuckles more than once.
We’ve all seen the Think Safe ad where the man is painting the eaves of his two-story house with Solarshield and his ladder tips, depositing him on his back onto the concrete twenty feet below. New Zealanders can be pretty blasé when it comes to personal safety, climbing up and down ladders and scampering about on our roofs without a care in the world, but the risk of injury from tasks such as cleaning out your spouting is considerable, with ladder falls costing this country almost $25 million in 2021.

It’s remarkably easy to tip a ladder, all it requires is for you to lean too far one way, so it pays to ask someone to hold your ladder for you. Note to self: dropping a wad of rotting debris on the head of your ladder holder will make you remarkably unpopular.
Of course, it’s not always possible to reach your spouting from a ladder, and you may be required to stand on the roof. We don’t need to tell you how dangerous this is, but for the love of God please make sure you’re wearing grippy shoes and that you’re not home alone in case the worst happens.
We’re lucky in New Zealand that we won’t come face to face with snakes or large hairy spiders when we clean out our spouting, but the debris that lurks in there can be pretty confronting to handle, so it’s not a job for the squeamish. It’s also messy. The rotten leaves, twigs, possum poo and birds nests you remove have to go somewhere, so you’ll either have to hang a receptacle on your ladder or simply deposit the debris on the ground as you go – while avoiding said ladder holder – and sweep it up afterwards.
When all is said and done, for the sake of a few hundred dollars, it’s going to be easier to outsource this yearly ritual to the experts. The team at DCM Roofing will have your spouting cleaned and repaired in the time it takes to pop down to Bunnings for a pair of gloves, and it’s infinitely cheaper than having to take weeks off work because you broke a bone in a ladder fall. Call Iain on 027 445 5597 or email iain@dcmroofing.co.nz today and we’ll have your gutters looking like new, just in time for the rainy season.