Ned Stevens

Had a meeting with an investment company trying to buy my business. Turns out they were representing Ned Stevens gutters. I told them I want interested lol. What a June t

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This is happening around the country for service area business’s. National companies are buying mom and pop shops like crazy. It was worse during covid when companies were more open to accruing debt. At one point they were offering HVAC companies out here 10 years revenue to sell… Thats bonkers.

Got a couple letters last week…

Not familiar with that name. Should I be?

Still waiting for someone to offer to buy me out. None yet. When that happens does that mean I’ve made it!?

They were a mediocre company at best, then tried going nationwide by buying other business. Read their reviews horrible. There is one in my county now. Not sure why they tried to buy me. Their game is they sell you a subscription service of 4 gutter cleanings a year. You don’t know when they are coming. They don’t remove debris. They bag it and leave it on your driveway. Most people complain that they never came but still got charged. You can’t reach a live person to cancel. I think they are trying to expand into washing.

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Never could figure out how or why this is a thing…I refuse to to sell people something they absolutely do not need. There’s not a gutter in the world that needs cleaning 4x a year. Guess they’ll be offering 2x a year washing too :man_facepalming:

Oh man. Normally Id agree with you but where i live I literally have to clean my gutters at least 4 and probably more like 6 to 8 a year. Pine needles are nuts!

…usually at the most inopportune moments for me. When it’s cold. When it’s raining. When it’s cold and raining. :joy: :joy: :joy:

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Working on it! :joy:

We’ve had like 11 trees cut down and it’s done wonders. It used to be even worse.

That’s kind of a problem though. You live up here and enjoy the wilderness but if you cut it all down what’s the point?

My first year here before the culling of trees I had a spot to park my boat. I was so excited. I had always rented and was never allowed to store my 18ft aluminum skiff with a canvas top at my property so it was always being moved around and stored at friends houses and just a general pain in the butt. I parked my boat and winterized it. About a month later I realized why the previous owner had not parked his boat there when snow fell off the branches of the trees and absolutely destroyed my aluminum skiffs canvas.

And THAT is why I can’t have nice things. Haha.

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Sounds like you need some good gutter guards…if you could figure out what works, you’d be killing it.

Ned Stevens would be a great name for an Andy Griffith character… Ned Stevens comes to town & is very impressed by Gomer Pyle’s gas station & service so he offers to by it from him. Gomer is very interested until he learns that ole Ned is going to double the prices & the citizens of Mayberry will have to pump their own gas, so he declines. Ned and a group of wealthy investors begin the process of building a rival gas station across the street in an attempt to put Gomer out of business. Finding this unacceptable, Andy intervenes & tells Ned about how much money he could be making cleaning out gutters in Mount Pilot. That’s when Ned eagerly hops into his Rolls Royce & hurries off into the sunset. (whistling outro music)

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Chicken wire bent into a box over the gutter holes seems to do alright. I’ve given up on the gimmicks though. Nothing keeps gutters clean like good old fashioned regular maintenance :wink:

Nothing keeps gutters clean like never installing them. I can think of no good reason to have them.

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Everyone in the boondocks has trees around their property. Every house I go to the guards are full of debris. Half the time moss is growing on it (the screen). They wanted them installed because of the leaves in the fall. Most of them don’t function correctly once the debris get in there.

I don’t clean gutters out, I just clean the outsides of them. Sometimes for some elderly people I will get a couple of handfuls of muck out so it drains again, but I won’t walk their roof.

I understand what you are saying, however, in the north with basements it is important to control water runoff around your home. I have about 4’ of hose/pipe at the bottom of my gutter to ensure the water goes away from the foundation. I have a french drain system around it that runs to daylight and gravel well around it so it drains to the pipe. I parged and tarred the basement walls too. Basements leak if you aren’t careful.

We had the same experience, so we found what we think is the best option (other than not having gutters, which I don’t recommend because it makes us washing the roof a nightmare :joy: ). Nothing is a perfect solution, it’s about finding the best option ultimately.

This is absolutely not accurate. At least here in the Triangle. I have clients that we service monthly, and every time we go their gutters are packed full of pine tree debris. Thank God for the long leaf pine, literally the tree that grows money. :joy:

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Bulldog or Shurflo do that best and making maintenance quick and easy. Just have to blow them off periodically… everything else is garbage.