It would seem to me that a ladder would be safer than walking the roof, especially if you use one of the gutter tools where you just extend it down the gutter line. Also, you will be carrying something up the gutter either way, whether its an empty bucket, trash bags, or a leaf blower.
Do you guys that blow the gutters out from the roof use a safety harness or anything? It’s not a big deal on a low pitch roof, of course, but what do you do on the steep ones?
Tireshark, I disagree. He’ll climb the ladder using two free hands and then I’ll hand him the blower. The biggest issue with working from the ladder is that I know my son will be standing on the ladder leaning out as far as possible to do as much work as possible so he doesn’t have to reposition the ladder. That is where my my biggest safety concern comes from. He has spent soooo much time on roofs doing roof replacement as a job, that he’s pretty comfortable walking roofs. That I’m not worried about. It’s the being on a ladder leaning way out, holding a bucket with one hand and clearing debris with the other hand, that I don’t like.
Right, but im saying that someone will be carrying something up the ladder either way. In your case, you are allowing your son to climb up the ladder without carrying anything, but everyone else will be carrying it up like you are doing… so that particular safety concern essentially gets cancelled out.
That leads me to another question… for the guys that use buckets, why dont you just put 3 or 4 large trash bags in your pocket and use them? Seems like that would be the easiest/safest option.
you don’t hold the bucket. the bucket is attached to the ladder stand off or attached to the gutters via bungee cord or in our case we have a small pulley block and a rope that we use to raise and lower the bucket from the ladder.
Yeah, if he’s a macho man, maybe he’ll try to lean out a little too far. But you can mitigate that by using a stabilizer, tying off the ladder and having the proper tools so reaching isn’t really necessary.
On the other hand, if he’s macho man doing it your way, he’ll wind up walking too close to the edge on roofs that are too steep and too wet - with a running gasoline engine in his hand and nothing to hold onto. One funny turn of the ankle. One slippery bit of moss. One soft piece of plywood hidden under a shingle. One sudden gust of wind.
Faster? Yeah. Safer? No way.
If I’m reading Fixit’s post correctly, i think it was less about being macho, and more about being…well… lazy, for lack of a better word. 
Maybe it’s location. I’m in the loblolly state. Every three or four months the roofs are under 6 inches of pine straw and leaves. Blowing off the roofs is as important as cleaning the gutters. Can do that from a ladder with a plastic scoop
I have a husqavarna backpack blower.
It definitely makes me top heavy and harder to keep balance. Plus you can clean with either hand and either direction with the handhelds. If I buy another it won’t be a backpack.
clearly I have a different opinion than some in this discussion and, that’s fine. Maybe some of you don’t have teenagers or, you just don’t remember how they behave. Without a doubt, my son would be unsafely hanging off a ladder every chance possible. This I know and, is the very reason I want to limit his ladder time. With the amount kf time that boy has spent working on roofs, I absolutely feel more comfortable with him up there.
What I feel is the safest method is what I outlined above and until I prove myself wrong, it will ne the method I will be using. I appreciate the feedback I received even if I don’t agree with some of it.
Absolutely. You have to do what YOU think is best. We’re not trying to beat you up. Just kicking some ideas around.
Never thought I was being beat up. But I don’t think some of you were looking at it from the perspective of how a teenager would. Tireshark kinda nailed it…They (teenagers) can throw safety out the window it makes thekr task easier, or quicker ao they can get home to their buds.
That’s not the case for me. I have 3 sons all grew up in the window cleaning business. They were never allowed to work unsafely on a ladder. I’d run them off a job so fast their head would spin if they did something stupid. And, I paid them far more than they could make elsewhere so believe me they were safe. Here’s my 17 yr old (he’s 20 now) brought a ladder in a 100+ year old home, set it up, cleaned the glass, and took it out without supervision. They never cut corners on safety, not once, not ever.
my son marches to his own band. He’s not one to follow the rules or care about consequences. And Never will… unfortunately.
Well, that’s how I was in my youth until the painful consequences of life started happening to me. Then the pain of change was less than the pain of staying the same, lol. He’ll grow out of it eventually. Especially since he has a good role model for a dad. I never had that.
I’ve brought a shop vac on a roof with a box of black trash bags, empty out the shop vac after a few minutes (they get heavy if the leaves are wet), put the bag by the ladder, repeat. But last time the vac fell off the roof, bounced on a bush and ripped a screen (which i replaced of course). What I’d like to try is hooking up a pool vac hose so i can leave the shop vac on the ground.
