[ftp]

Ok you get the big commercial job - four storeys high and off you go your wiggling your nozzle along the gutter and you dislodge the last six foot section and off it comes swan neck and all.

What do you do next? What are you going to tell your customer. Your not trained to use a cherry picker, what are you going to do?

[Nathanael Jones]

Big ladders???

I'd use another pole  to fish it down (Use the narrower end of the pole to push up inside the dangling section). The area is already cordoned off, warning signs in place and I and all my staff are wearing hard hats, for those who are having a coronary at the safety implications.

From then on, gaffer tape the higher sections together for that kind of work.

Hypothetically thats what I'd do,....

[ftp]

Yes but four storeys high - you can't use ladders it's commercial and against health and safety.
Would you let your insurance take a hit - are you covered for this?

[Oakley Windows]

Gutter obviously wasnt fit for purpose.

[Blue Sky 2]

It happened to me, the loc-lite adjustable came apart, told the customer that we had to call back the following day with ladders to remove a shrub that was growing out of the gutter.
Went to HSS hired a rope ladder. Customer very happy.

[STEVE-UK]

Bluesky - that happened to me to, i just fished it out with the spike as there was nothing below

[ftp]

What i meant was you knock the guttering off and maybe the swan neck that joins to the downpipe. Remember it's four storeys at least and commercial.

[trevor povey]

good question sounds like with the lack o f replies people wouldn,t know what to do...so maybe they would just leave it??

[*Derek*]

Thats a good question. It could actually happen if using high pressure to flush them.

2 choices really.

Bite the bullet high a cherry picker lose money and do job properly.

or

Hope that no one will notice and say nothing.

[michael papworth]

What an interesting question.

There are some lovely jobs in Evesham town centre just crying out to be done. People in the street comment on the gutter gardens.

In every case, the gutters look like they will come away from the wall if a sparrow farts in close proximity.

I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. Quite apart from the possible claims from the landlords, imagine a section falling onto a mum and babe-in-arms.

I stick to domestics and only on newish houses or very well-maintained older ones.

Commercial contractors, I imagine, must have experience of less well-maintained and have probably got the details of a building contractor  close at hand all the time.

[Nathanael Jones]

What i meant was you knock the guttering off and maybe the swan neck that joins to the downpipe. Remember it's four storeys at least and commercial.

In that case, I'd hire the cherry picker & operator (Try to get a special rate as I'd only need it an hour) and take the hit to maintain my professional reputation. It'd be an expensive lesson to learn though. 

[Chris Galloway]

What i meant was you knock the guttering off and maybe the swan neck that joins to the downpipe. Remember it's four storeys at least and commercial.

I think in that case you really need to assess the quality and how well maintained the brackets, fittings, pipes etc are for your RA and MS. If you think its not possible to clean without a passibilty of this happening then you should not do it with a vac, or do it via a cherry picker with the vac.

If it as per wally says, then the area should be fully cordoned off anyway.

[Oakley Windows]

Add some terms and conditions to your paperwork?


'It wernt me Guv!!' Or something like that.

[ftp]

I did a residential a couple of weeks ago and the swan neck flew off when my brush touched it, it had a split which might be why it was so loose. You couldn't see it though from the ground. I had to use the custys ladder to put it back together. It got me wondering how on earth i would get around the problem if it was a high commercial or even a vey high residential.
Also, you wouldn't believe the weight a gutter full of sludge has to support!