We look first
From the ground, along the whole run, before anything is touched. Around Bree the front and the hedgerow side are usually far worse than the other two, so it is worth knowing where the weight is.
Gutter Cleaning in Bree, Co. Wexford
If there is grass growing out of the gutter, that is not dirt sitting on top of it. It is a bed of compacted leaf and field dust deep enough to hold a seed and keep it wet. Around Bree that takes about two seasons to build, and one visit to take back out.
01
Cleared, not just rinsed
The mat is lifted out and taken away.
02
The whole run
Front and back, not just the road-facing length.
03
Nothing left behind
It goes in the bag, not on your beds.
04
From €75
Priced from photos, before we come.
Why Bree gutters fill the way they do
It happens in two pushes a year rather than steadily, which is why they can look fine in June and be full by November.
Late spring: pollen off the hedgerows
From May the ditches and mature trees around Bree shed heavily, and it is fine enough to wash into the run rather than sit on the roof. On its own it would rinse through. It is what it does to the next layer that matters.
Summer: field dust, and silage
Ploughing and harvesting lift fine soil that settles along the roofline, and silage season adds a greasy residue that ordinary rain does not shift. Mixed into the pollen already there, it stops being loose material and starts being a mat.
Autumn: the leaf that sets it
Leaf falls onto a bed that is already holding water, so instead of blowing off it beds in. That is the point where a run stops draining and starts holding, and it is the point where grass has somewhere to root.
Bree sits on the working farming roads between Enniscorthy and Wexford Town, with hedgerows on both sides of most of them. Houses along those roads tell us the same thing every autumn: the front and the hedgerow side fill first, and the other two sides are barely touched. That is worth knowing before anyone quotes you for the whole house.
What is actually in a Bree gutter
In the order it goes in, which is also the order it has to come out.
- 1This season's leaf, on topWhatever came down since the last clear. Rain still moves this part, which is why a gutter can look fine from the ground and not be.
- 2The compacted mat underneathHedgerow pollen and field dust bind the older leaf into a dense layer that holds water like a sponge. This is the part that has to be lifted out by hand rather than flushed through.
- 3Silt lying in the channelThe finest material of all, sitting in the bottom of the run. It is the part that holds water long after the visible debris is gone, so the channel is taken down to it rather than skimmed.
How a Bree gutter visit runs
Four steps, and most of the time goes on the second.
The run is cleared
Out in sections, into the bag, and nothing dragged the length of the run. Where it has bound itself to the channel it is eased off rather than forced.
A last look along it
Corner to corner, before we finish. It is the gutter runs we clear, and we would rather find the missed foot of it than you would.
Everything leaves with us
What came out is bagged and on the van. The ground under the run is put back the way it was, and you hear straight what we found.
Everything the visit covers in Bree
The run, and the parts that make it work.
Where we work around Bree
We are through here regularly, so a gutter clear rarely means waiting for a special trip out.
The village and the townlands around it, with Davidstown and Clonroche on the same run, Ballyhogue next door and Oilgate over on the main road. If you are on one of the hedgerow roads between them, you are on our sheet.
Wider out we cover Enniscorthy and Wexford Town, with Ballymurn and Adamstown on the western side. One picture from the driveway usually settles it.
What you get in Bree
Every visit, not as extras.
-
The whole accessible runNot just the length you can see from the road.
-
Every side we can reachFront, back and the returns, not only the worst one.
-
An honest word on the intervalIncluding when the answer is that it will keep.
Doing the roof as well?
Doing both on the same day means one set-up instead of two, and it means the gutters are cleared after the tiles rather than before them — which is the only sensible order.
See roof cleaning in BreeQuestions about a gutter that has gone this far
The ones we get asked from the driveway, mostly.
Is grass in the gutter doing any harm?
The grass itself does very little. What it tells you is that the run underneath has been holding water long enough for a seed to take, and standing water is what gets at the fascia behind the gutter and the render below it. Clearing it takes the weight and the damp out together.
Will you need to get into the garden or the house?
The garden, yes, so we can reach the run. Inside the house, no. If there is a side passage or a gate you would rather we did not use, tell us when you book and we will work around it.
What does the visit actually involve?
We clear the gutter channels along the roofline, from the ground. What comes out goes into a bag and away on the van, and the run is walked end to end before we call it done.
What does it cost around Bree?
Gutter cleaning starts at €75. The figure follows the run itself — how much of it there is, how long since it was done, and how we get to it. Send a photo from the ground and you will get a figure rather than a range.
Book a gutter clear in Bree
Tell us the basics and we will come back to you with a date and a price. Gutter work starts at €75.