How do people really clean their gutters on the 2nd story? I don't even know if they have ladders that go that high (except at the fire station) let alone the safety and price issues of such a ladder.
Thanks in advance.
jonners2013,
May 15, 11:33pm
an extension ladder. it has a little rope pulley in it. it's quite nerve wracking up there, so take care.
alternative is to do it from the top down, which means getting on the roof, but that can be significantly more difficult unless you have a very low pitched/flat roof.
barrie2,
May 16, 12:24am
Hi weera2500 - I replied to your 'general' thread this morning. Sadly there are a few 'idiots' on there who criticize others advice. To repeat: try get a local handyman type of guy who will get up on the roof and clean gutters without all the 'red tape' that big companies will need (scaffolding, bosuns chair) etc. Another comment re gutter guard type products: I tried this but the leaves etc eventually blocked the holes in the 'guard', baked over in hot sun and I ended up with a 'crust' on the 'guard' that rendered it ineffective.
survivalkiwi,
May 16, 1:23am
The small guys will need protection also. As a builder who works with only an apprentice we have been visited by osh 4 times in the last 18 months. It is amazing where they pop up. Any one doing a job like that without the correct safety gear now days would be a complete idiot.
weera2500,
May 16, 2:19am
Thank you very much Barrie2! Points taken :)
Thanks to everyone else who has have replied too! I can do the 1st story gutter on a ladder, no issues there, but 2nd story on a ladder honestly does not seem safe at all. I would have chosen the roof option but worried whether my roof can bear the weight of me! I am around 80kgs. Don't wanna crash through the roof lol.
macman26,
May 16, 3:01am
There is a hose attachment to clean gutters. Perhaps they do an extra long one.
kiwiguy47,
May 17, 1:22am
We use a gutter attachment connected to the water blaster done from ground in approx 1 hr
johotech,
May 17, 1:36am
Some companies are set up to do vacuum gutter cleaning from the ground. They use equipment similar to truck mounted carpet cleaning vacuum systems, and some have a video camera on the head so they can see that it's clean.
bluecat1529,
May 17, 2:58am
Sucks eh? We used to do gutter cleaning but it is now in the too hard basket. No point wasting time doing a site visit and quoting to clean a gutter and to supply scaffold and erect and dismantle it so we no longer bother. People won't pay for it. And the fines if you get caught not complying are horrendous. Like enough to put you out of business. So we thank callers politely for the opportunity and suggest they call a roofer. Farcical but what do you do?
roys351,
May 17, 3:37am
you could do that but in handing out that contract you are up for a max fine of $50,000 and if it is a company you use the fine for them max $200,000 wsnz are self funded so are happy to hand out large fines. you are allowed to do it yourself with no safety precautions at all if you own the house
pestri,
May 20, 9:54pm
yep, quite okay for the home owner to kill himself.
nesta129,
May 21, 5:23am
lol. yup. I have done it myself at my dad's.Pretty scary when a strong,quick gust of wind just blows at your back and it suddenly feels dangerous. Even the little handyman guy who climbs up with no harness,safety equipment got a family to go home to. Better to be safe than sorry and get the proper guys in.
wembley1,
May 21, 5:44am
Are you seriously suggesting a home owner is responsible under the HSE Act for the safety of every tradesman they hire?
Rubbish - it is the Health and Safety in *Employment* Act. If you are hiring someone to do a job you are purchasing a *service* from them you are not employing them. If you were employing them you would be having to pay ACC fees to ACC; PAYE to IRD; etc; etc.
roys351,
May 22, 4:56am
yes they are. but what would i know i only own a scaffolding company.if they are paying the contractor then they are the contract manager.unless the contractor is the contracts manager then they are up for max fine of $200.000 as they would most likely be a company
golfdiver,
May 22, 5:00am
You really should study the current laws. It will be a big eye opener. Roy is correct
roys351,
May 22, 5:10am
thanks i dident want to try to post a link
pauldw,
May 22, 5:25am
Doesn't it depend on the scope of the work being done? A new build Is treated differently to repairs.
"When you hire someone to build your home you become a principal under the Act. A principal must take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that no contractor or subcontractor, or their employees, are harmed while doing any work on the house site."
"A person already living in the house, who hires people to do repairs or renovations, is not a principal under the Act, i.e. house occupiers are excluded from liability under the Act." from Consumer dated Mar 2015 on the HSE Act.
roys351,
May 22, 5:45am
need to look at the changes made 1-4 2015 worksafe nz
pauldw,
May 22, 6:20am
What changes. The HSE Ammendment Act is still before Parliament.
From an HSE perspective, that's also actually "best practice" and better than full scaffold with all the bells and whistles, as they've avoided the risk from working at height completely.
In these threads there seems to be misunderstanding about what's "allowed" and who is making the decision. The regulations use terms like "practicable" and "reasonable". You can still use ladders (if other methods to gain access aren't practicable or reasonable) - in fact the height of ladders which can be used scares the utter crap out of me - something like 6.5m for a stepladder, 9m for a single, 15m for an extension ladder. But then if on a ladder (as well as other safety requirements), you need to maintain 3 points of contact. Could you send workers up ladders to clean out gutters and be sure that this can be achieved? Nope. Could you safely send a handyman/maintenance person up a 6m ladder to get a tennis ball out of the top of a 2nd floor downpipe? Probably. If you were routinely doing work at that height, is using ladders a good idea? Nope - you'd be flayed alive if you tried to argue that was reasonable.
Possibly another factor with regard to ladders is popular myth resulting from condemnation of the use of 3-step ladders. They cause lots of injury accidents because they're inherently unsafe - as in practice you usually can't or don't maintain 3 points of contact. Some people seem to have taken from that an incorrect assumption that a larger stepladder must be worse - as it's higher.
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