Introduction
If you live in Wiltshire, you’ve probably seen ‘Hedgehog Gutter Brushes’ advertised as a low-maintenance way to keep gutters clear. As a Gutter Cleaning company in Wiltshire we have 10 years of gutter clearance work across Melksham, Trowbridge and Chippenham, we’ve seen how they perform in the real world. This guide explains whether gutter brushes work, when they fail, and what we recommend instead so you can keep your gutters unblocked and clear.
Executive Summary
Gutter brushes often cause more problems than they solve for most Wiltshire homes. For many homeowners it’s more cost effective to have your gutters cleared annually instead or install larger capacity gutters.
What are gutter brushes?
Gutter brushes (commonly referred to as ‘Hedgehog Gutter Brushes’) are long cylinder shaped nylon brushes with a metal core that inserts into your gutters to stop debris, leaves, twigs, moss and other unwanted things from getting into your gutters. The first appeared in the early 2000s and we’ve personally worked on houses with them fitted since 2016.**
Gutter Brushes Claims vs Reality
The claim is that the gutter brushes, once fitted will mean you don’t have to clear/empty your gutters for an extended period since the brushes stop the debris entering your gutters. It’s widely stated within product descriptions that any leaves and similar that get caught in the gutter brush bristles will break down and flow away with water flow in the gutters.
On one retailer website it is stated that the Hedgehog branded gutter brushes come with a 10 year guarantee that the gutter brushes will perform their intended function.*
How Much Do Gutter Brushes Cost – Wiltshire Home Examples
Gutter Brushes are available across numerous online outlets and even more local stores like Screwfix. Typical costs for buying brushes fall within the region of £160 for a medium sizes Wiltshire home. You would expect to pay roughly £60-80 to have them inserted providing access to your gutters is straight forward. If you have a sloping roof or conservatory below sections of guttering this may require additional access equipment.
Our Real World findings (10 years experience)
In our real world experience providing gutter cleaning services in Wiltshire, specifically gutter clearance where we vacuum debris out of your gutters; we’ve found that gutter brushes across the board do not live up to the claims.
They initially stop leaves and other debris from entering your gutters but with time, the gutter brushes get clogged with leaves, moss, silt and soil creating a sausage shaped obstruction within the gutters. Once this happens the gutter bushes need to be removed, cleaned and re-inserted. Not to mention that the gutters still need clearing out as well.
With this in mind conducting a gutter clearance when there’s gutter brushes fitted usually takes 3-4 times as long when compared to clearing gutters normally. This increases the cost proportionately.
If fitting the gutter brushes meant that the gutters needed clearing much less often this would make logical sense. However, many homeowners with gutter brushes fitted are still requesting gutter clearance services just as often.
In reality many homeowners opt to permanently remove gutter brushes after a few years of having them fitted.
A Wiltshire home suffering blocked gutters despite a gutter brush being fitted. The gutter brush is clogged solid with soil and grass.
When Gutter Brushes Can Work – (Only for Larger Gutters)
When a gutter brush is placed into a large Ogee or American metal style gutter there’s significant gaps left under the gutter brush because it’s a round cross section of brush being placed into a square-ish profile of gutter. This gap allows water flow under the brush and enables silt to wash away as promoted.
These larger angular profile gutters are less common on Wiltshire home.
When They Don’t Work (Most Wiltshire homes)
In Wiltshire, most of our gutters are nominal half round or square profile. These profile and sizes are relatively low capacity compared to gutters in the US where Gutter Brushes see more of a following.
When we place gutter brushes into a normal round profile gutter, the bristles take up all space in the gutter. This limits the flow of water as silt and other decayed debris builds up leading to a blockage.
A Better Alternative for Wiltshire Homes
For most homes in Melksham and Wiltshire where we primarily have nominal sized gutters, the better alternative in many instances is to merely have your gutters cleared annually. Ensure your gutters are cleared by a competent, professional and experienced company.
Your downpipe unions and downpipes should be inspected thoroughly to ensure they’re clear from blockages and restrictions. Soakaways in particular should also be checked and precautionary advice should be given where there is no ground level opening for the downpipe as shown.
Gold Standard Recommendations
Ensure your soakaway or drain entry has protection from any debris, leaves or moss that could potentially enter it from the downpipe and guttering system. To do this, ensure there is a grill or similar protection before gutter water enters the soakaway as shown in the image.
A fantastic way to protect your soakaway or drainage system is to install a leaf separator as shown below. This device acts as an inline filter and separates leaves, moss and other debris from entering your drain or soakaway. You can easily clear this from ground level safely.
With these methods to protect your soaksway, you won’t need gutter guards which are prone to constant blocking and restriction. Save yourself the hassle and instead take one of these actions to protect your soakaway and drainage entry points instead.
No Soakaway protection at ground level. The gutter downpipe goes straight into the ground. Unless there is protection in the gutters above, all sorts of debris can enter and eventually clog the soakaway leading to expensive remedial works.
A square grid hopper installed at ground level and the downpipe is cut at an angle so the homeowner can clear any leaves that are caught from entering the soakaway.
Platinum Recommendation
Large Diameter Metal Gutters
Consider upgrading your gutter system to a high capacity system which flows more water and is intrinsically harder to suffer a blockage due to the increased diameter.
If upgrading to a larger diameter galvanised metal or aluminium guttering system they’ll remain stable, watertight and outlast plastic gutters.
Large Diameter Plastic Gutters
Larger diameter higher flow plastic gutters are a better option than standard gutter systems. Although you should consider that plastic gutters suffer terribly from repetitive expansion and contraction during sunny hot days.
When your gutters expand and contract like this they shift position, warp and develop leaks. Darker gutters such as the brown and black plastic suffer from this more because the darker colours absorb more heat from direct sun. If you have darker coloured gutters you may have noticed them creaking during sunny days as they expand and contract.
Brown and black gutters can also suffer significantly from fading that is less noticeable with white gutters.
Larger Gutters – A Worthwhile Investment
Upgrading your gutters to high capacity versions is a worthwhile upgrade if your budget allows. They often need gutter clearance less often and so over time the cost of the upgrade can pay for itself over the years with less frequent maintenance required.
Things to avoid
Gutter Guards
Avoid fitting gutter guards in your gutters. The smaller guards in particular tend to block very easily and you’re left calling someone round to access them with a ladder to unblock them. The larger balloon type gutter guards work better although they’re visible as they’re higher than the gutters.
However, the use of these guards is widely misunderstood. The purpose of these gutter guards are to protect debris, leaves and moss from entering your soakaway.
The optimal solution is to protect your soakaway at ground level and leave the gutters above without any guards. The benefit is that you protect your soakaway just the same but because you’re protecting at ground level you can clear any debris easily with your feet on the ground.
There’s no need to use a ladder or call in a professional.
If you’re unable to protect your soak way at ground level then you should install a gutter downpipe guard but we always advise protecting at ground level and the primary option as it’s the more efficient way and will often save you money in the long term as you can conduct basic maintenance and save yourself money.
Summary & Key Takeaways
In summary we advise against gutter brushes for your Wiltshire home unless you have large square or Ogee style gutters. Even then your should still assess the overall cost of buying and having gutter brushes fitted and the potential additional long term cost increase for gutter maintenance as the gutter brushes increase the scope of gutter clearance.
This should be weighed up against the alternative of upgrading your gutter system and protecting your soakaway and/or drains at ground level. Possibly installing leaf separators.
We hope this information is useful. Please bear in mind this is not formal advice but an honest analysis from almost 10 years of direct experience providing exterior cleaning and clearing gutters throughout Wiltshire and previously Hampshire on a wide variety of homes and commercial properties. We encourage you to check other sources and make an informed decision with your gutters. If you wish to get in touch and ask our opinion we’re happy to help.
References
**https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent-business/county-news/straight-out-the-gutter-41225/#
**https://www.gutterbrush.com/pages/about-us?srsltid=AfmBOoogAsS4wmrJCFRwJ3go-KMg001wAqkFwFrV9b94YTih91CehB_e