To make things worse, I felt terrible because my existing shrubs were all dead because water had eroded the dirt and exposed all the roots. I felt even worse about the situation because the foundation was starting to crack and it needed to be handled quickly. I felt like a failure as a new homeowner.
The Problem:
The problem was that I never noticed the gutters were clogged until it was raining hard and my beds were a mess. Which meant all my shrubs were toast and there was a huge crack in the foundation, which meant I had to unclog the gutters to stop the erosion and replace all the shrubs.
The Epiphany:
That's when I talked with my lead foreman from my lawn mowing company all about gutter cleaning and the benefits of being proactive!
It was now crystal clear to me how to stop the rainwater from invading my flowerbeds and washing away the soil because I saw I could schedule my mowing crew to do this work when we had time in the schedule.
I also learned that simply unclogging the gutters once was not enough, you need to schedule regular service instead.
As a result, I started paying attention to when my leaves were falling the most.
After I did that, I started taking note of how often my own gutters became clogged.
Suddenly, I was keeping the mulch in my beds and I stopped losing soil to erosion.
That’s when I realized that the secret to saving a great landscape for my new house was putting our gutters on a cleaning schedule.
The Plan:
My plan was to start helping my lawn mowing clients keep their beds healthy by unclogging their gutters.
So I started letting them know that we performed the gutter cleaning service. But we didn’t stop there.
We then noticed how often their gutters were clogged again.
After that, we made a regular maintenance program to make it more effective.
But there was still a problem...
The Conflict:
As my business grew, we were struggling to keep up. We had just one crew for gutter cleaning and they were doing everything on Saturdays when we had no other work scheduled. Basically, we got to the point where we had more requests than time and we needed some better practices because we were spending a lot more time working than we had available in the schedule. Plus, my crew was not getting the time off they needed since they now had to work late on the weekends.
The Achievement:
We ended up getting so frustrated that we decided to dedicate a crew just to the gutters.
We chose to call it the “Gutter Clean Team”.
We thought if we could create a system that would make it possible to help more people have functional gutters, we’d be really happy.
After completing 12 months of gutter service for our mowing clients and figuring out how to service more efficiently, the Gutter Clean Team became a regular request for new clients too.
We can now clean gutters for less money than previously expected while providing better service.
We then started to let other homeowners use the Gutter Clean Team.
As a result of all this we were able to achieve the following:
We were able to take our clients from 5 services a year, down to just 2 services a year by installing inexpensive downspout filters to keep debris out and allow water to flow more easily. The filters extended the time the time between cleaning and has saved our clients a ton of money and actually increased the functionality of their gutters. There are almost no clogs anymore with our complete system.
The Transformation:
After creating the Gutter Clean Team, we were not only able to stop the erosion from washing away their beautiful landscape and the fresh mulch we installed, we’ve also been able to stop further damage to foundations because we can now ensure the gutters are clean and rainwater flows like a river away from the house just as you would like.
And in the end, all of this means we are now able to serve more clients and help them save money while building peace of mind that their most expensive investment is being protected without them having to get on a ladder and do it themselves.
What you can do:
Get a quote and more importantly get on the schedule to get your gutters cleaned to ensure your foundation and landscape is not washed away due to clogged gutters.