Worst Gutter Blockage of the Year 2020

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Is that a TREE in the gutter?!?

Wow! What a year 2020 was. We were absolutely flooded with gutter cleaning jobs all throughout the suburbs of metro Melbourne and beyond. It seems that everything going on with Covid and the ensuing restrictions, sent the people of Melbourne into home clean-up mode. The flow of clients didn’t stop as we entered 2021 and we’re only now managing to catch up on sharing our worst gutter blockage of 2020 with you all! Better late than never though, right? So, without further ado, enjoy…

What was the worst gutter blockage of 2020?

2020 was a huge year for the Grayson’s Gutter Cleaning team. We saw our fair share of blocked gutters, as we do every year. Some were easy to clean, others not so simple. While sifting through some pictures we’d taken of the blockages we’d cleared, we came across this beauty and couldn’t go past it. Of all the gutters we’d seen and tended to in 2020, this was our pick for the worst of the bunch…

A small tree growing in a gutter
The worst gutter blockage we came across in 2020. If you look close you can even see a red coloured gutter mesh in the gutters that has been overrun and destroyed by the tree growth.

That, my friends, is a plant the size of a small tree. Yep. What a nightmare, there’s also a permanently screwed down gutter protection mesh that we had to service underneath it.

Can you see the neighbour’s gutter in the background also blocked up? This neighbourhood was in need of some serious gutter maintenance!

Now, we’re not sure what type of plant this is, but it looks to be a small tree or type of shrub. Plant experts, do you have any ideas? We’re stumped!

How did it end up in the gutter?

This plant had been allowed to grow next to the house for quite some time, making its way up and up until it overran the corner of the roof and started causing issues with the guttering system. The small branches and stems had become lodged in gaps between the roof and the guttering, and the brittle twigs were breaking off and falling into the gutter itself.

The owners noticed how much debris the plant was leaving on the roof and gutters and so, decided to chop through the base in the hopes that it would fully die off and fall to the ground for easy disposal. Well, the plant had other ideas and decided that it liked its rooftop home and refused to fall down, even months later.

The homeowners didn’t want to risk injury climbing up onto the roof and didn’t have the tools to remove it from the ground without causing possible damage, so they decided to call in the pros.

How was it removed?

When we arrived at this home and saw just how big this blockage was, we knew we’d have a tough job on our hands.

We scoped out the issues and figured that in order to remove the dead plant from the gutter, we’d have to go piece by piece. When it comes to trees like this, you can’t just pull it all down in one go and hope for the best. If you approach it like that you may risk damaging both the gutter and your actual roof with the yanking force, as branches could be attached or woven through gaps between the two. This was definitely the case at this home.

So, we set to work delicately cutting branches away bit by bit and eventually we managed to remove the entire thing from the roof without causing a single spot of damage. You can see that even the roof joint and capping cement on the corner are completely intact. We also provided a clean of the gutter itself by undoing the bolts on the edge of the plastic roofing and undoing the bolts on the leaf guard mesh to make sure we got all the tree matter out. Unfortunately the gutter protection mesh had suffered too much wear from the tree growth, so it wasn’t salvageable.

Check out the final result…

Clean gutters and roof after removing the blockage
Clean gutters and roof, with the tree growth obstruction carefully removed. Sadly we had to remove the old leaf guard also.

Not a bad job for a gutter that had a tree growing through it, right?

How does it compare to the worst gutter blockage of 2019?

Ok, 2019’s worst gutter blockage was a prickly situation. Literally. There was a huge cactus growing out of the gutter. Now, that was a tough job, but it was relatively easily removed because we always carry thick gloves with us to every site. So, last year’s worst blockage was definitely easier to remove, but the novelty of the whole thing was quite funny. It’s amazing what can happen when birds carry seeds and drop them in your gutter!

You can see photos of 2019’s gutter cactus story here!

What should I do if my gutter is severely blocked?

We will tackle any gutter cleaning job, big or small! Who knows, if the challenge is big enough it might end up being our pick for the 2021 worst gutter blockage of the year.

So, if the guttering system on your Melbourne home is in need of a tidy, a makeover or a fully fledged intervention, you know who to call.

Grayson’s Gutter Cleaning

Phone: 1300 472 976

We’ve had a lot of fun sifting through all the pictures from the past year, trying to find the best blockage to take out the title. Bring on the rest of 2021!

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