Gutter cleaning cost calculator

Linear feet is the unit, and getting it wrong costs the job

A gutter is a line around a roof. It has a length and it has a height, and it does not have an area, which is why every attempt to price it per square foot collapses the moment two houses with the same floor plate have different eave runs. Measure the perimeter you are actually cleaning — the front, the back, the returns, the garage — and price that. On these figures 200 linear ft of maintained gutter on a two-storey house is $125, or $0.63 a foot.

Most single-family homes land between 150 and 200 linear feet, and that band is where nearly every residential quote you write will sit. It is worth knowing by heart, because it lets you sanity-check a customer's description on the phone: a "small ranch" that somehow has 300 linear ft of run is a house with a complicated roofline, and complicated rooflines are where the ladder time hides.

Read the rate per foot back off the finished number rather than starting from it. Above the minimum charge the rate is close to steady at a given height — $0.63 a foot across 200 linear ft and $0.63 across 300 linear ft — but it moves the instant the height does, and any single advertised rate per foot is a rate for exactly one kind of house.

The storey count is the price, not a surcharge bolted on top

Height is the dominant driver here and it is not close. A cleaner covers about 130 linear feet an hour at ground level, roughly 80 at two storeys and 55 at three, because the work stops being scooping and starts being ladder logistics: set it, foot it, level it on soft ground, climb, clear eight or ten feet, come down, move it, repeat. On the same 180-foot run that is $76, $111 and $153.

Because it is a production rate rather than a percentage, it compounds honestly with everything else instead of stacking surcharges nobody can justify. The third storey is not "plus 40% for height" — it is 1h 53m more of somebody's day on the same house, which you can show a customer on a line item and which will survive them ringing two competitors.

It also tells you which jobs to want. A ground-floor run at $0.42 a foot is fast, safe and easy to route three of into a morning; a three-storey Victorian at $0.85 pays better per foot and eats the day. Both are good businesses. Pricing them off the same flyer number is not.

Guards and downspouts are separate jobs with their own clocks

Guard removal is the line most quotes forget and the one that turns a profitable morning into a long one. Unclipping or unscrewing a section, cleaning underneath, then getting it seated properly again runs about 0.5 of a minute per foot — 1h 30m on the reference house, which is $61 of work. Ask on the phone whether there are guards, because the customer who says "they have covers on them, so it should be quicker" is describing the opposite of what happens.

Downspouts are counted, not measured. Each one is a fixed block of about 6 minutes to flush and, if it does not run, to rod from the bottom — and a roof usually has one per 35 feet or so of run, which is 6 on a 200 linear ft home. They are also the part the customer actually cares about, since a blocked outlet is what put water down the wall and made them call you.

Debris is the third clock, and it slows the run and the outlets while leaving the guards alone: a screw takes the same time whether the trough behind it is empty or full. A maintained run at $111 becomes $139 after one autumn and $178 when nobody has been up there in years — 4h 24m against 2h 45m, all of it time you can point at.

Minimums, ladders and the reason this job is sold twice a year

The 1.5-hour minimum exists because a ladder does not load itself. On the reference card that floor is $61, and it is doing real work at the bottom of the table: 100 linear ft on a bungalow measures out under it and therefore prices at the floor, $61, while the same run one storey up clears it at $63. Quote the floor as a call-out, in the first sentence, and nobody blinks.

Then price the risk you are actually carrying, because it is not the leaves. Falls are the reason this trade is insured the way it is, and an owner-operator quoting a three-storey run at a two-storey rate is buying that risk out of their own margin. If the roofline needs a harness, standoffs or a spotter who is not cleaning, that is a different bid and it belongs in writing with the reason attached.

Finally, sell it as a season rather than a visit. Gutters fill on a schedule nobody controls, so a spring-and-autumn arrangement doubles the value of a customer you have already driven to, already measured and already carried a ladder around — and at $111 a visit that is a $223 customer for one round of setup. It is also the cheapest way there is to keep a list warm for the rest of what you sell.

Gutter pricing questions owners ask

How much should I charge for gutter cleaning?

Price it from your own hours at the height you are working. At the reference wage and a 25% margin, 180 linear feet of maintained gutter is $76 on a single-storey home, $111 on a two-storey and $153 on a three-storey.

How much should I charge per linear foot for gutter cleaning?

There is one rate per height, not one rate. On these figures it works out at $0.42 a linear foot at ground level, $0.62 at two storeys and $0.85 at three — and below the minimum charge the rate stops meaning anything at all.

Should I charge for gutter cleaning by the square foot?

No, and this is the most common pricing mistake in the trade. A gutter is a line, not a plane: two houses with the same floor area can have very different eave runs depending on the roofline. Measure the perimeter you are cleaning and quote per linear foot, or quote a flat price built from it.

How many linear feet of gutter does a typical house have?

Most single-family homes run 150 to 200 linear feet, with about one downspout per 35 feet — 6 on a 200 linear ft home. Walk the perimeter on your first few jobs and check your estimate against the tape, because the returns and the garage are what people forget.

How much extra should I charge to remove gutter guards?

Charge it as its own task rather than as a percentage. Removal, cleaning underneath and correct reinstatement runs about 0.5 of a minute a foot, which is 1h 30m and $61 on the 180-foot reference house. Confirm on the phone that guards are fitted before you quote anything.

How long does it take to clean gutters on a two-storey house?

About 2h 45m of cleaner time for 180 maintained linear feet, which is 1h 23m on site with two people. A neglected run on the same house is 4h 24m, because packed debris has to be dug out and the outlets rodded rather than flushed.

Should gutter cleaning be a one-off or a recurring service?

Recurring, wherever the trees allow it. A spring-and-autumn schedule turns a $111 visit into a $223 customer for the same measuring, the same drive and the same relationship — and gives you a reason to be at the property twice a year with everything else you sell.