About 4-4.5k one year warranty. Add the camera pole set up about another $500.
So, I spent most of last night looking at vacs. Some are 220v and would make a generator with a fat cord out of the question. Some are 110v which is feasible, RHG I believe for around $2300. Some were the gas engine option. Problem I see is having to shut down every 2 minutes to empty the little 16 gallon drums. What am I missing?
https://www.detroitsponge.com/RHG-Gutter-Vacuum-Complete-Unit-w-35-Feet-of-Pole
Surely they work better than this
Why not buy a vac system that can be used for recovery as well as gutter cleaning ? you can find used sirocco systems for pennys on the dollar ? Pine straw typically causes a clog problem in the bulkhead fittings you can correct that with long sweep elbows that will clog 80% less than short sweep fittings. Gas engine driven vac’s are a must I started with a nikro ? dual head electric system that was far less efficient than my current gas models. Drums can be 30 or 50 gallon you don’t have to use the 15’s or 16’s & 2" hose is a must. Still you need to be on the roof with the vac wand dragging hose, we have never tried it from the ground. Bottom line is they work but can clog with pine straw or small sticks that haven’t been broken down enough. It is still faster to blow with air & we use the vac only for courtyard gutters or areas that cant have blown debris falling on surfaces below & charge 200% more for cleanings.
I don’t offer water recovery. A 55 gallon drum didn’t seen portable. Apartment complexes and townhomes aren’t truck friendly for driving they grass and some buildings are a couple hundred feet to the rears from the parking lot. I would want something I could put in the back of whichever truck was doing gutters that day
I would have been done that job before they even got on the ladder.
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Amén. I’m trying to be open to new ideas but I’m not seeing it yet
I dont get the whole vac thing either for cleaning gutters. A leaf blower works really well and is really fast.
We also have a guy on the ground cleaning up as well at the same time so once the roof guy is done so is the ground guy.
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Guys spend so much time and money trying to make gutter cleaning easier. The truth is it’s just not an easy job. However using a bucket with a hook and a scoop to remove the debris is the cleanest and fastest way to do the job. I suppose if you can get away with using a blower to blow it out it’s faster but it makes a mess so we don’t do it that way. At least on residential, maybe it would be acceptable on commercial.
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We always try to schedule before their fall clean up. If not we explain if you want everything hand picked into a bucket then it will be 100 dollars more. If your fine with the clean up after we are done ( it wont be perfect but it will be clean) then its regular price.
The clean up from what falls blends in with what already falls from the trees that don’t make it on the roof anyways.
I use a blower and a scraper/putty knife on a pole
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I emailed 2 companies yesterday and no one got back to me
I got the worst results when I paid another company for AdWords. I do it myself and only spend a couple hundred a month and get great results. It takes less than 1 job to pay for it and it brings in close to 4 grand a month. I’m already on the first page in my area but there’s always people that will click on the first thing they see and that’s usually an ad.
The hardest thing with that is installing roof anchors and ensuring employees are osha compliant…
Meyers has a good gas engine vac…it’s made for insulation but they claim it can be used for gutters. The bags are the coolest part, now it would be a pain loading and unloading. There 5hp model was $1900 and they have a 14hp Kohler for 3 grand. I’ll find some pictures
I talked to a couple of guys this afternoon that I know have them and they both said it’s a waste. It may work for some but I’m not going to try to reinvent the wheel.
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I steered away from electric vac, i don’t want to trip customers breakers, and with a 3 head motor or 220:motor you have to run a generator. So that seems like a waste.
Iocal place rents the 14hp for a day for 90… May rent it and test it out with gutter vac poles before dropping 2400.
I hate gutters though, but seems like a lot of people in the spring rush are looking to get them done
You do not have to install a roof anchor. You can tie off on the opposite side of the house. Then reverse it.
If the roof is walkable then we dont tie off. If its not walkable then we use our ladders. We set multiple ladders with blowers.
I would take an hour or two and read OSHA’s actual manual on working on roofs.
A lot of information I’ve read on forums is incorrect when people discuss OSHA.
For instance, on a low pitched “walkable” roof, within 6ft of the roofs edge performaning work you must be anchored ( to an OSHA approved device). … not a tree tied in the front yard. If using mechanical devices (leaf blower, pole…etc) you must be tied off within 10 ft of the roofs edge. That is for walkable pitched roofs.
(Numbers might be off by one or two, but a few months since I’ve read it)
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