Our house has high gutters. To clean them, I’ll either need to get a good-sized ladder, or hire someone to muck them out.
Another problem is that on the north side, the house is so close to the neighbor’s yard that the ladder would need to sit in their yard as I (or anyone else) was working on the gutters. Yet another reason to make nice with this neighbor.
Looking at ladders, it seems that one of those multi-position ladders that can be an extension ladder and then fold over and become a step-ladder would be ideal, but they seem expensive. A tall step-ladder would allow me to orient the ladder parallel to the side of the house rather than lean it against. This would allow me to get up to the gutters keeping the base of the ladder in the yard, but I’d need to be 20 or so feet up there, which means a pretty tall step-ladder.
Little Giant, Louisville, and Gorilla are some of the brands I looked at online. Little Giant’s website carries the “As Seen on TV” logo, which immediately scares me. Their biggest model (#26) goes to 11′ as a step-ladder and runs $439 with free shipping. Free shipping is nice, but that’s still a lot and I don’t think the step-ladder arrangement would be tall enough. Maybe if they threw in a free Flo-Bie… Louisville’s largest multi is quite a bit less expensive at about $200 but also a bit smaller at 19′ for the extension and 7′ for the step. Gorilla’s largest is a little under 19′ for the extension and a little under 11′ as a step. They do not provide pricing and provide a link to Home Depot which lists only 1, dinky ladder under the Gorilla name. Home Depot seems to love Little Giant though.
So the only people who have the ladder for this job are either rich enough that they don’t need to clean gutters themselves, or they are pros. Or they are moonlighting as gutter cleaners because they sprang for a pricey ladder and need the extra income to pay it off.
Back to square one. Talk to neighbor, then simpler ladder or hire someone.
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