The standard advice is twice a year — spring and fall. For about half the houses we service, that's the right answer. For the other half, it's wrong in one direction or the other, and the difference is almost entirely about trees.
Know your tree situation
No mature trees within 20 metres? Once a year in late fall is honestly fine. Your gutters mostly collect shingle grit and the occasional tennis ball.
A couple of deciduous trees nearby? The classic twice a year: once after the spring seed drop (those maple keys are relentless), once after the leaves finish in late November.
Living under mature oaks or maples in Richmond Hill, Aurora or one of Toronto's older tree-lined streets? Three to four times a year, and we're not upselling you — we've pulled full wheelbarrows out of gutters that were cleaned four months earlier.
Pine trees? Sorry. Needles shed year-round and mat into a felt that water can't get through. Quarterly, or install quality guards.
What actually happens when you skip it
Clogged gutters don't just overflow — they overflow in specific bad places. Water sheets down behind the fascia and rots it. It pools against the foundation on the side where the downspout backed up. In winter, standing water in clogged gutters freezes, and ice dams pry your gutters away from the house and push meltwater up under the shingles.
Basically every fascia repair job we do started as a gutter cleaning someone skipped. It's part of why gutter work is core to our exterior maintenance service.
What changes the price
The size of the house, the number of storeys and how packed the gutters are all affect the quote. Send us a photo of the front of the house and we'll give you a number. Bundling it with other exterior work — a pressure wash, caulking, weatherstripping — is the efficient way to do it, since the crew and ladders are already there.
The five-second self-check
Next real rainstorm, step outside with an umbrella and look at your gutters. Water pouring over the edge anywhere? That section's clogged. Downspout barely trickling while it pours? Clogged. That's the whole inspection.
If you saw pouring, call (365) 360-1416 — gutter visits are quick to schedule and we'll flag anything else we spot up there while we're at it.
