Serving Livonia, MI
Gutter Cleaning in Livonia, MI
5.0 from 792 Google reviews
BeforeGutter cleaning for Livonia's ranches, split levels and colonials, where sixty-year-old maples hang over low rooflines and load up small gutters. We clean them out by hand, run water down each downspout and haul the debris away.
Owner-operated in Northville since 2014
Local to Livonia
What Livonia does to your gutters
Big trees over low roofs
Street trees planted in the 1950s and 1960s are full size now and hang right over one-story roofs. The leaves per foot of gutter are higher here than in newer areas, even though the houses are smaller, and they all come down in October and November.
Ice dams on shallow ranch eaves
Low pitch, a short eave, older attic insulation and a packed gutter are exactly what makes an ice dam, and Livonia's postwar houses have all four. Meltwater pools at the cold edge, refreezes and works back under the shingles. Clearing the gutter before the freeze takes away the place the water pools.
Original gutters, tired hangers and soft fascia
A lot of Livonia gutters are original or close to it, hung on spikes driven into wood fascia that has been through sixty Michigan winters. When they're full of wet leaves and then loaded with snow, those hangers give way. It's worth knowing about a loose section before the first heavy snowfall.
Our own photos
What the work looks like
Every photo on this site is a Glass Guru job. None of it is stock.
Before and afterPacked with leaves, then cleared 
Window cleaningAn arched mirror over the fireplace 
Commercial window cleaningSkylight dome on a flat roof 
Pressure washingPatio and seat wall 
Christmas lightsWarm white over a carved entry 
Chandelier cleaningA two-story foyer fixture
Free quote
Get a quote for your gutters
We schedule most fall gutter cleaning for the second half of November, once the oaks are done.
Free quote
Tell us about the house
The price depends on how many feet of gutter you have and how high they are.
Rather talk it through? Call (906) 203-6538
How your quote is worked out
Gutter cleaning is quoted per property, from the total linear footage, the number of downspouts, the height of the house and how complex the roofline is.
How long it takes
The time a gutter cleaning takes is set by the linear footage, the downspout count, the house height and the roofline complexity. The square footage of the house matters less. Two-story homes take longer, depending on how often the ladder has to move.
In their words
What our clients say
Word for word from our Google profile.
More gutter cleaning reviews“Fair price, efficient team and very professional.”
Glass Guru did a great job on our windows and gutters. Fair price, efficient team and very professional. Will use them again for sure.
Review 1 of 4
Why it happens in Livonia
Livonia's street trees now outweigh its gutters
The trees are older than the subdivisions feel. Livonia went from farmland to a city of over a hundred thousand people between 1950 and 1970, and the street trees planted then are now full-grown maples and oaks hanging over one-story and split-level roofs. A mature maple over a low ranch roof drops more into a gutter than a young tree over a two-story colonial, and that gutter is usually a five-inch run put up decades ago on hangers that have worked loose. The eave is shallow and the pitch is low, so the water has nowhere to go but over the front. It's also the classic setup for an ice dam, which is why we see more of them here than in the newer townships.
How we handle it in Livonia
- Packed wet leaves, seed pods and shingle grit pulled out by hand, which is what's sitting in a sixty-year-old Livonia gutter in November.
- Downspouts flushed and checked, including the older, smaller downspouts that block far more easily than modern ones.
- Loose hangers and spikes pulling out of the fascia pointed out while we're up there, so you hear it from us before a section comes down under snow.
- Low ranch eaves cleared with ice dams in mind, since a shallow eave under big trees is the worst case here.
- Debris bagged and hauled away, with beds and drive left clean.
“Excellent work both for window and gutter cleaning.”
Questions
Gutter cleaning questions from Livonia homeowners
How much does gutter cleaning cost in Livonia?
Livonia's ranches have low rooflines, which keeps the reach simple. What moves the price is the debris under big trees, along with the length of the gutters, the pitch and whether guards need to come off. We'll quote it once we have the address.
Will cleaning my gutters stop the ice dam I get every year?
It takes away one of the three causes. An ice dam needs a warm roof, a cold edge and somewhere for meltwater to pool, and a packed gutter is that place. Clearing it lowers the risk. If the dam forms on the same corner every winter anyway, the cause is attic insulation or ventilation, and we'll say so.
How often do Livonia gutters need doing?
Twice a year at least, and three times makes sense for a house under big mature trees. The late fall visit matters most, and it should come after the oaks finish. That's usually well into November, a few weeks after the last weekend of October when most people book.
Can you tell me if my gutters need replacing?
We'll tell you what we see: hangers pulling out of the fascia, seams that have opened, sections that have lost their slope, or rot behind the gutter. We don't install or replace gutters, so we have nothing to gain by overstating it. You get a straight answer you can take to whoever does the work.
Do you clear the roof and the valleys too?
We clear debris along the shingle line and in the valleys where it's safe to reach, because that's what refills the gutter in the next storm. On a low-pitch ranch that's usually simple. On a steep or fragile roof we look first and tell you plainly if we shouldn't be walking it.
How much snow does Livonia get?
NOAA's normals for Detroit Metro Airport, the closest airport station, average 45 inches of snow a year, with about 14 days that bring an inch or more. On a low ranch roof that snow sits right above the gutter, and when it melts into a gutter full of leaves, it refreezes at the edge.
The detail
Gutter cleaning in Livonia, explained
The tallest trees over the lowest roofs
Livonia has more owner-occupied homes than anywhere else we work, about nine in ten, and nearly all of them are postwar: brick ranches and split levels on a grid, with street trees planted as the subdivisions went in. Sixty or seventy years later, those trees are the biggest thing on the street, and they sit over the lowest roofs in our area. That's a different gutter job from a two-story colonial in Canton with a young maple out front, and we schedule it that way.
Ice dams on a shallow Livonia eave
A ranch has a low pitch and a short eave, so the cold edge of the roof sits close to the warm part. Add attic insulation built to older standards and a gutter full of wet leaves, and meltwater pools right where the roof is coldest. It freezes, the ice builds back up the roof, and water gets under the shingles. Clearing the gutter won't fix the insulation, but it removes the pool. If we see the same dam on the same corner every year, we'll tell you the fix is in the attic.
A short ladder is still a ladder
A Livonia ranch gutter is only eight or nine feet up, so plenty of homeowners here clean their own. A short ladder on soft October ground is how people get hurt, and a ladder leaned on a full aluminum gutter bends it. We work from stable footing, flush every downspout and take the debris with us.
Livonia's trees and the Rouge
Livonia has held Tree City USA status since 1998, and the city is now planting a wider mix of street trees so it relies less on maples. The maples already up there aren't going anywhere, and their seeds and leaves fill a ranch gutter twice a year. The city also has more than 1,389 acres of parks and open space spread over 60 parks, and the houses beside them get the heaviest loads.
More than 40 miles of the Rouge River system run through Livonia, and the city covers over 12 percent of the land in the Rouge watershed. Storm water from roofs and driveways ends up in it. The city runs curbside leaf pickup every fall, and keeping the gutters clear keeps that same debris out of the drains.
When to book gutter cleaning in Livonia
Two visits a year, with the second one after the oaks finish in November and before the freeze. Livonia's grid makes it easy to do several houses on one street in a day, so if your neighbors are interested, book together. If the windows are due, and with triple-track storms they often are, we can do both on the same visit. If you want Christmas lights too, ask in September, because the install dates go first.
Where we work
Serving all of Livonia
We clear gutters near Greenmead Historical Park, Rosedale Gardens Historic District, Laurel Park Place, Schoolcraft College, and every neighborhood in between.
- Rosedale Gardens
- Greenmead area
- Six Mile Road corridor
- Seven Mile Road corridor
- Newburgh Road corridor
Free quote
Book it for after the leaves are down
Send us your Livonia address and tell us what you need, and we'll get back to you with a price.
More from Glass Guru
Gutter cleaning near Livonia
Gutter cleaning service areasGlass Guru Window Cleaning is based in Northville and does gutter cleaning across Livonia, MI. Hand cleanout, every downspout flushed and flow-checked, and the debris hauled away. Read more about our gutter cleaning service, or see all seven things we clean.