If you’re using the standoff on the roof and flipping up the feet to dig into the turf, it doesn’t matter if your ladder is set out a little bit further than the standard 4:1 ratio.
Just make sure to lift up on the top of the ladder a bit while you’re getting those feet sunk in. Otherwise the ladder will extend a bit from the standoff grabbing the roof while the feet sink.
Yeah. No harm done man! I was under assumption it was favored to “lean against” vertical wall vs lean “down” on roof. Either way I wasn’t aware of a difference. I’ve done it both ways.
Download the ladder safety app by NIOSH
You put your phone against the rail of the ladder and it will beep and vibrate at the perfect angle.
I dunno about you guys, but I’m much more concerned if the ladder is going straight up and isn’t going to slide to the side. Finding a solid level place to put the feet seems much more important than the exact distance to the house.
That’s why I bought a Ladder-Max. It’s the only stabilizer OSHA approved for direct roof placement. Or that’s what their video said anyway. It’s also a lot more money. I bought one. It’s horrible. The Werner one is fine, but sometimes the white caps pop off when you are pulling the ladder away from the roof. One day I should tape those on or something.
Tennis balls to replace white caps. Osha doesn’t approve any product. It is either compliant or non compliant with OSHA.
Tennis balls are a great idea 
It looks like they changed the wording in their product description. And they no longer claim to be the “only stabilizer” approved for such use.
G’day my friend,
In Australia we do most of our gutter cleaning jobs from the ground. With my gutter vac system I can easily reach two stories high using my carbon fibre extentions. I rarely have to get on a roof which decreases the chance of injury as well as eliminates the possibility of dislodging or cracking any tiles.
The gutter vac I use is powered by a 36hp EFi Vanguard engine coupled to a 4" Tri-Lobe Positive Displacement Blower Vac that puts out 650CFM and -16Hg. This is an awesome vac and it sucks up anything that gets in its way whether it’s wet or dry. The vac system stays on my trailer as it weights about 300kg. I can use up to around 80m of 3" vac hose with the end 20m being 2.5" which is easier to lift around etc.
I can’t understand why you don’t have these gutter vacs in US. The company I bought my vac from is setting up contacts in the US where he hopes to have them made locally in the US.
I have never used a blower for cleaning gutters either. All they seem to do is blow the gunk out of the gutters and onto the ground… which then needs cleaning up anyway. Use a gutter vac and there is no mess left to clean. These vacs will sucks the chrome off your bullbar… ha ha ha
Good luck with your gutter cleaning.
Cheers… John!
JET-FORCE Pressure Washing
GUTTER MUNCHER - Vacuum Gutter Cleaninh
What is the brand name?
We have them in the States. Unfortunately gutter vacs only partially remove debris from the gutters themselves, and will not remove pine straw. They don’t clear down spouts, remove debris from roofs and valleys and are impractical to use in many applications. The few contractors in my area that got conned into buying them have either sold or given them away.
Was hoping there was a better way to clean out pool screen super gutters. We have come across some really hard ones 
@Innocentbystander, just curious, were any of your acquaintances using a rig with specs like this?
Most of the guttervacs I see marketed here in the US are puny electric units. Or much smaller gas powered vacuums.
Definitely smaller units, but the comment remains sound. You can’t get 6 inches of pine straw/leaves off a roof or out of a gutter from the ground with a vac, or clear a down spout.
This part I can agree with wholeheartedly. The other stuff, I feel like a strong enough vacuum might stand a chance. Still won’t be as efficient as a guy on the roof with a blower. But I bet it could be done.
I have cleared off complexes where they literally had to bring in the landscape crew with dump trailers to haul off the pine straw we blew off roofs.
I think at 650cfm it would take care of any pine needles with ease. That’s a heck of a lot of suction. I’m pretty sure the biggest units skyVac does is less than 300cfm. I’ve had a play with there electric unit, trash to say the least. Bulk of the price is in the camera system.
There are several companies that make these gutter vacs here in the Land of Oz. There are no particular brand names as such. All are composed of the motor either Vanguard or Honda ranging from 21hp to 37hp. There are mainly 3 PD Blower/Vacs used here being Tuthill (American & Chinese), Ingersoll (German) and the American Gardner Denver.
The power plant of the whole system is a Positive Displacement Blower. This kind of industrial pump is used in factories all over the world and also in most of the large vacuum trucks that do what is known as non-destructive digging (Hydro Excavating). They use a pd blower because they are immensely powerful and very reliable. Generally a pd blower in a factory will run 24 hours a day 7 days a week without stopping. They are strong and destruction proof. The prefect combination for a small business owner that wants a vacuum system that is reliable, low maintenance and cheap to run. As an example, my blower unit creates around 650 cfm with a vacuum rating of -16” Hg (inches mercury). An electric vacuum will create high air flow, sometimes over a 1000 cfm however the vacuum rating will be very low, around 4-5 inches Hg. What the difference means is, an electric vacuum will be OK over short hose lengths, generally less than 25-30 metres for a triple motor electric vacuum such as the SkyVac. And then only for light dry waste. This is because the actual raw vacuum at 4-5 inches mercury is just not powerful enough to suck anything difficult like sludge, mud, gravel, rocks, soil, dense wet leaves etc. With an electric vacuum, as the hose length increases the vacuum at the end drops away dramatically. Now, because my vac is being powered by a pd blower and has 4 times the raw vacuum grunt, the vacuum does not decrease even up to 100 metres of suction hose. It gobbles up everything in its path. The units are so powerful that they have to install a vacuum relief valve to shut the vacuum down when your hose gets blocked. It is truly a beast and should not have any issues sucking up anything wet or dry in gutters, roof valleys and alike. In regard to the spouts, I use my 4000psi 6g/pm hot water pressure washer to flush out and clean the spouts. I also use my vac for water tank cleaning (de-sludgeing), cleaning out underneath Sheep Shearing Sheds etc. They are a very versatile system with numerous potential for different types of applications.
Anyway guys, I hope this info is of use to you. Please feel free to ask any questions.
These PD Blower Vacs are extremely popular here in Australia. For fairdinkum professional gutter cleaning contractors this is the only way to go.
Got any photos of this beast? I’m intrigued.
