When to clean your gutters in Austin: spring and fall

Most gutter advice is written for places where every tree drops its leaves in autumn and that is the end of it. Clean once in late fall and you are done for the year. Around Austin that schedule misses half the problem, because the tree that shades more Austin roofs than any other does not follow it.

Live oaks hold their leaves through winter and then drop them in spring, usually from late February into April, as the new growth pushes the old leaves off. At almost the same time they shed their pollen tassels, the stringy brown catkins that cover cars and driveways for a few weeks. Both end up in the gutters. A gutter under a big live oak can be fuller in April than it ever gets in November.

Then autumn brings the second load. Cedar elms, red oaks, pecans and the other deciduous trees drop through November and into December. So the honest answer for most Austin homes is twice a year: once in late spring after the live oaks have finished, and once in early winter after the fall drop is over. Cleaning in the middle of either drop just means the gutters fill straight back up.

How much tree cover you have changes the number. A house with no trees overhanging the roof can often go a full year between cleanings. A house sitting under mature oaks on more than one side may need a third visit, because the gutters on the shaded side never really empty between seasons. Gutters on a two story house are worth keeping on schedule for a simple reason: you cannot see into them, so a problem gets a long head start before anyone notices.

You can usually tell it is time without getting on a ladder. Look for dark stripes or dirty streaks running down the siding right under the gutter line, which is overflow tracking down the wall. Look for little plants or seedlings growing out of the gutter, because anything growing in there has soil to grow in. Watch a downspout during a proper rain: if water is spilling over the gutter edge while the downspout barely runs, there is a blockage somewhere between the two. And look at the ground under the gutter line for a strip of splashed mulch or bare soil where water has been landing.

Spring matters for one more reason. Austin's heaviest rain tends to arrive in spring and again in autumn, often all at once. A gutter half full of oak leaves can cope with light rain and then overflow completely in the first real storm of the season. Getting the spring clean done before those storms, rather than after the first one has already gone over the edge, is the timing that actually protects the house. Why that overflow matters so much here, with our clay soils, is covered on our gutter cleaning page.

Gutter cleaning runs $150 for a single story home and $250 for two stories, and that includes flushing the downspouts so the debris does not just get pushed down into them. If you are not sure whether yours need doing yet, send a photo of the roofline and we will tell you honestly. Free quotes, seven days a week, and we offer a senior discount.