[rycalshaw]

do any of you lads in the gutter cleaning biz ever do local authority work,(council houses etc) as i said in a previous post there isn,t anyone offering this service in my area and council house gutters will need cleaning just like any other dwelling,surely it would be cheaper to hire a contractor to do the job than to hire scaffold etc like they seem to have to do with all high level jobs these days....

[Blast Away]

We did 90 x 2 storey houses and 21 x 3 storey blocks of flats in March for a Housing Association. All done from the ground by vacuum. Was a pretty good job. This type of work they will want doing every 5 years.

[drive surgeon]

jeeze thats a lot of gutter cleaning, do you have many staff to do that and do all the pressure washing aswell? sounds good mate.

[Blast Away]

jeeze thats a lot of gutter cleaning, do you have many staff to do that and do all the pressure washing aswell? sounds good mate.

Took 11 days total 2 men. Averaging 10 houses front and back a day. Pushing a generator and vac around the estate and recording each gutter clear for evidence. 50% heavily soiled and 50% next to nothing in them. Also all downspouts checked.

[rycalshaw]

what did you charge for each house,did you have to give a hefty discount to secure the contract...thanks

[BDCS]

Thats a can of worms waiting to be opened

[Blast Away]

what did you charge for each house,did you have to give a hefty discount to secure the contract...thanks

 

[drive surgeon]

 

[drive surgeon]

just out of interest blast away what generator do you use for your vac? i need one that is small as possible really but fine to run a gutter vac. and how much was it?  its got to be a certain kva?

[Blast Away]

just out of interest blast away what generator do you use for your vac? i need one that is small as possible really but fine to run a gutter vac. and how much was it?  its got to be a certain kva?

It's 13hp Honda. 6Kva I think mate

[Scoop]

just out of interest blast away what generator do you use for your vac? i need one that is small as possible really but fine to run a gutter vac. and how much was it?  its got to be a certain kva?

It's 13hp Honda. 6Kva I think mate

Wow! I bet it's a light as a feather  I suppose you PW guys need the big stuff for all the other equipment you use.

The Clarke FG2000 is fine for me. 2.4KVA but I only us 2, about 40kg with fuel, very compact and cheap as chips. Haven't found a job I couldn't do with it yet.

Re. local authority, I've been in touch with mine and there might be some work there. One thing they asked me for was Absbestos Awareness Training, which is an online course that costs about £40. Sadly most people think that gutter cleaning should happen in late Autumn or in the Spring so there may be a glut of work around those times.

[Matt Gibson]

What section in the council do you speak to regarding this kinda work? ive always hit closed doors with the councils..

[Rick Ward]

"business link" do a good course on winning work in  the public sector- and it's free. I went on one last week in Halifax but they do them all around the country.

[drive surgeon]

just out of interest blast away what generator do you use for your vac? i need one that is small as possible really but fine to run a gutter vac. and how much was it?  its got to be a certain kva?

It's 13hp Honda. 6Kva I think mate

does it weigh a ton blast away or just as heavy as a 13hp pressure washer?  i know bdcs said he had a suitcase generator which is smaller but they are verey expensive.

[BDCS]

What section in the council do you speak to regarding this kinda work? ive always hit closed doors with the councils..

Try Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm you find the doors open then  

Trig - I have the same as blast away for running the gutter vac (6kva, 11hp) as you won't run mine on the 2.4kva which I have also. I have a 1kva suitcase which runs the hot box and drain camera

[Blast Away]

2.4Kva isn't gonna run a wet vac that has 3 x 1500w motors. That's a vac we have for sucking gutters.

It's built on a trolley like a washer. 90kg at a guess.

[Matt Gibson]

Can you use a smaller watt vac for gutter cleaning? Some of the window shiners are using a 1400watt vac for their gutters. Is that powerfull enough?

[BDCS]

It may be powerfull enough to remove next to nowt but even with 4200 watts some weeds, trees and grass can take some work. You can always turn motors off if you really feel the need but you can't switch them on if you don't have them. I always try to buy the better gear rather than get by on the minimum

[drive surgeon]

i just use custys electic at present, they dont mind at all.  but for the apartment blocks i need a generator and more lengths of tube!

[Alan McTernan]

i just use custys electic at present, they dont mind at all.  but for the apartment blocks i need a generator and more lengths of tube!

I used to use the clients electric until i tripped the electric point in the garage which run there garage freezer and the fuse board was in the house, and no-one was in :

So from now on i always use the genny, even if it is only a small gutter clean!!!

I modified my genny onto an old PW trolley!!! Works a treat!!!

Regards
Alan