[Scoop]

My vac is Eastern 3x1kw but only use 2 motors with the gen. I've never found something I couldn't shift apart from one weed in a downpipe over the apex of a garage roof that was so blocked that even Ulrika Jonsson couldn't have sucked it out. On anything up to 30ft I don't need the huge power that the PW guys are talking about. I can clear a gutter completely although maybe not as quickly as 4.5Kw.

I also use custys electric wherever possible, which is 90% of jobs so usually running at 3kw. Even persuaded next door neighbour to plug me in once before I bought the gen  

Matt. Councils are tricky as it just depends on who you are dealing with. Don't forget that they probably have 60 people trying to sell them toilet rolls so it's the one who stands out that gets the work. Try letter AND email AND phone call. Another trick is to go to Reception, ask for head of works office (say you have an appointment, they don't know) then when you get there blunder in and say, "Oh sorry, I was looking for the office to pay my Council tax. But now that I'm here can I give you my card for ladderless gutter cleaning" and try to engage a conversation. Quite often they'll be glad you've turned up 

[Blast Away]

Here's a video we done of one of the most heavily soiled gutters with the suction tubing that I made. We also have some alloy poles but I prefer these for visual effect to impress

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMzMlG-wDlg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

As BDCS said even a triple motor can struggle, gutters like this in the video just requires patience. Let your vac breath too and not choke it. There will always come a point where you'll need to suck a load of water through your hose to clear the inner walls if you've been sucking a lot of slop.

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That's some good work Lee. I have to admit that I've never come across anything that badly blocked but no doubt I will at some stage My system would struggle with the long twigs but yours seems to swallow everything. Very impressive.

Can I ask :

- How did you make the clear tubing and does it bend a lot? How high can you go?

- Who was controlling the camera - was this another operator with the camera on a pole?

- Do you get blockages or does the vac just devour everything?

- Do you charge more if the gutters are this bad?

Really interesting to see - thanks for posting.

Laurence

[Blast Away]

That's some good work Lee. I have to admit that I've never come across anything that badly blocked but no doubt I will at some stage My system would struggle with the long twigs but yours seems to swallow everything. Very impressive.

Can I ask :

- How did you make the clear tubing and does it bend a lot? How high can you go?

- Who was controlling the camera - was this another operator with the camera on a pole?

- Do you get blockages or does the vac just devour everything?

- Do you charge more if the gutters are this bad?

Really interesting to see - thanks for posting.

Laurence

Alright Loz,

Just before the camera cut off there were some large twigs which had to be taken out by hand. Twigs are the main problem with blockages no matter the size they are. Blockages mainly occur on the inlet to the vac.
We don't have a mounted camera, although should another job like this come up I'll be sure to get one but for this they were happy with me to just dash up a ladder and take a quick picture of each one cleared. Not exactly working at height is it.

The clear tubing I bought off a supplier on ebay in 1 meter lengths and joined each piece together with a 50mm black tube cut into 6'' lengths and sliced down the centre and 2 jubilee clips. Nice a sturdy but still light. I wouldn't recommend more than 2 storey with acrylic tube though. The bend I bought a silicone bend used in the car tuning game.

With this job each gutter run was the same price no matter what was in them. Some nothing, some dust, some just water, some leaves, some mud, some moss and twigs and many had bits of broken tiles and mortar from the ridge-tile pointing.

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Thanks for that - you've answered every question perfectly