The building was approx. 25' across. It had about 10' of gutter then a right angle to 3' of gutter. It had two runs of this either side of making approx. 26' of guttering. Both approx. 13' runs were as jam packed, as bad as I have ever seen.
We never go out and quote, we have a fixed price range and stick to it with no "extras". We always make sure we do the job.
The building faced on to a slope, 5 x 5' poles one end to 6 x 5' poles the other. It opened directly on to a concrete drive which was also an access drive to a communal car park. We never carry ladders, but they were out of the question anyway.
The gutters had less than an inch of gap between the tiles and outer edge of gutter.
The root ball was the full length of gutter both sides, completely filling the gutter, and it all had to come through a less than 1" gap, had the roots been very wet it would have been easier as they would have been more pliable but they were only slightly damp which made them far harder to work on.
Suction was out of the question, but because of our extremely rigid, light and strong poles we were able to work the whole lot out with our downpipe fork (probably one of the most effective gutter clearing tools available.) we gave the gutters a vacuum before leaving, to clear any loose dirt left.
I had and still have never met Darren. I saw him arrive, he was still there when we left about 10 minutes later. I honestly thought he was a double glazing salesman after all somebody has to pay for all that waffle, it was only when we in the van that Alex had recognised him from a picture he had seen and mentioned it to me.
So yes Darren I was there and I know you were, but it is like my late father-in-law used to say "there's them that talk a good job and there's them that do a good job.