Gutter cleaning in Lindfield: what to check before you call anyone

What to look for

1. 1

   Branches or leaf litter sitting directly over your roofline. Lindfield's older blocks were built around established trees. Under Ku-ring-gai Council's rules, a tree five metres or taller, or with a trunk 150mm or more across, generally needs a council permit before it can be pruned or removed. So you can't just cut back an overhanging branch yourself — the gutter underneath it does more of the work and needs clearing more often.

2. 2

   A steeper roof pitch than you'd see on a newer project home. A good number of Lindfield's federation and California bungalow homes are double brick and tile, which tends to come with a steeper roof than modern builds. It changes how I access the roof and what I quote, so tell me the roof type when you call.

3. 3

   Gutters pulling away from the fascia, or visible sag along a run. On older homes, the brackets holding the gutter up are often the original fixings. If you can see daylight between the gutter and the roofline, or a dip where water's pooling, that's a sign it's overdue.

4. 4

   Water marks or staining on the brickwork just below the gutter line. This is usually the first visible sign a gutter's already overflowed. On a two-storey federation home that's a harder spot to see from the ground, which is why it gets missed.

5. 5

   If you're in a unit or townhouse, whether anyone's actually responsible for the gutters. On a strata property the gutters are usually a common-area item, so they can go years without attention unless it's on someone's maintenance schedule. Worth asking your strata manager when it was last done.

6. 6

   Dry leaf build-up in your gutters heading into bushfire season. Parts of Ku-ring-gai, including blocks near the bushland bordering Garigal and Lane Cove National Parks, fall within mapped bush fire prone land. NSW RFS lists clearing debris and leaves from your gutters among its top five actions for preparing a home for bushfire season, specifically because dry leaf litter is exactly what catches embers.