gutter brightening vs cleaning

Gutter brightening is not gutter cleaning

Cleaning takes the leaves out. Brightening treats the tiger stripes on the face of the gutter. They are two visits’ worth of different work, and the chemistry is not mild.

Aluminum gutter faces oxidize and grow a black run where the roof has been rinsing algae down the lip. The inside of the gutter can be empty and the outside still looks neglected. A bleach wash of the house sometimes lightens that face and sometimes does not. A dedicated brightening step is a stronger treatment aimed at the metal, and it is quoted on its own because the risk and the rinse are different.

Anything strong enough to flash a gutter face is strong enough to mark a shutter, a brick pier, and the holly underneath if it is handled casually. We protect what is below it. We also will not brighten a gutter that needs to be rehung. Pretty metal on a failed pitch still overflows.

Cleaning — the bags of leaves, the flush of the downspout — is the maintenance. Do that first if the trough is full. Brightening a packed gutter is cosmetic work on top of a clog.

The service this belongs to is Gutter brightening.