Choosing a Gutter Maintenance Company – What to Look For
Clogged and unmaintained gutters can cause untold damage to your home. Did you know that if left unattended for long enough, a leak from a gutter can eventually damage the foundations of your house? Long before that happens you’ll probably experience leaky roofs, heavy moss build-up, damaged fascias, peeling paintwork, and internal damp. Sounds good? I thought not!
But if you don’t have the time, the know-how, or the inclination to get up a ladder and repair your gutter yourself, you might be interested to know that there are plenty of companies out there like Gutter Guys who do gutter repairs in Liverpool, that can assist you.
But who do I choose? What do I look for?
Fear not, my friends, because you will soon understand! To those not in-the-know, the world of property maintenance and gutter repair can seem very alien. Full of tools and terminology that you’ve never come across before.
There are some important factors to consider when choosing a gutter maintenance company.
- Location
Where in the country are you based? Generally, the cost of living and services increases as you get closer to London. As a general rule of thumb, however, the average cost of gutter cleaning is around £4 per metre of guttering. So if you’ve got a large property with more gutters, you can probably expect to pay more. Also bear in mind how close a potential contractor is to your house. They will have to factor in travel and transport, so if you choose a company that is an hour from where you live, you’ll be left with a substantially heftier invoice than if you choose one ten minutes away.
- Reputation
This is important when choosing any tradesperson, and gutter maintenance companies are no different. Check their feedback on review aggregator sites and social media. Look how long they’ve been around, and ask your friends and family if they’ve used that company. If not, ask if they know any companies to recommend. Word of mouth is like gold dust to a contractor, as they know people won’t recommend them unless they’re certain of their abilities, so use that as a measure of a companies worth yourself!
- Licences and Insurance
A well-established and reliable company will be fully licenced and insured. Any tradesperson working at heights or using equipment like pressure washers will want to make sure they’re covered. A lot of smaller companies who are just starting out may not be covered yet, and that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be trusted and shouldn’t be hired. But it does mean that if, god forbid, something goes wrong on your property, you will be liable. It’s unlikely, as a skilled professional will go to great lengths to ensure nothing goes wrong, but accidents do happen! It’s something worth bearing in mind when making your selection.
- Guarantee
Any tradesperson worth hiring will normally give a guarantee with their work. This means that if something goes wrong with what they’ve carried out at your property within a certain timeframe (usually a year) then you can call them back to put it right free of charge. Obviously, doing anything for free is a massive loss for any business, so they will want to avoid it at all costs. Therefore, anyone offering gutter cleaning and/or repair with a guarantee can surely be trusted to carry out professional and reliable work. A guarantee is not essential, and you will find plenty of well-reputed tradespeople that do not offer any sort of guarantee. But it’s something that may give you that little extra peace of mind!
- Cost
To some, this is the most important factor, to others, it is irrelevant if they know they are paying for quality workmanship. As stated earlier, the average cost per metre of guttering is around £4, but this will vary on location. Cost is tricky to evaluate as it is the first thing you will consider when reviewing a quote, but it must be taken in context. If the quote seems exceptionally expensive, does the company’s reputation match the price? If it seems very cheap, have you missed something important like the company’s lack of licences or insurance? Cost must be considered along with all the other factors listed above, and when all are taken into consideration, you must decide if the price quoted makes sense.
There are lots of things to consider when choosing a company to maintain your gutters. But try not to feel overwhelmed; a lot of us feel out of our depth when it come to selecting any contractor or tradesperson. Consider each of the above, and weigh up the cost against the pros and cons. As gutter cleaning is a job that should be carried out semi-frequently, many companies may offer a package deal for a programme of scheduled cleans, after an initial deep clean and tune-up. This can save money in the long run, and will give you peace of mind that your property is not deteriorating!
