micky said:
**At least temporarily, I've gotten too fat and too old to climb a
ladder to clean out the gutters on my two story house. And for the
first time in the 31 years I've been here, the rear one is partially
clogged, and water overflows during a heavy rain. Plus I'd have to
borrow a ladder.
Note that water also will overflow, if the rise
over run is not correct. That's a problem with my gutter
right now, and I have a temporary fix in place.
The tilt of the gutter can change, if the wood starts
to rot, and the gutter is sagging a bit.
I'm 67, and two people have voluteered to do this for me, a guy in his
30's who used to live next door, and a friend who is 77, yes 77, but in
much better shape than I am. But if I start letting people do for me,
I'll really be old. So I got a device just for cleaning gutters,
connects to the garden hose and is J-shaped at the end. And it
telescopes to about 8 or 10 feet. But wouldnt' reach. I tried a 6
foot ladder but still not long enough. So I had a telescoping pole I
used to paint the end of my house, the top half of the attic, and I
taped the washer pole to this pole, using clear tape, which I think has
less stickum on it, so it won't clog**** the telescoping parts, and
covered that with Duck tape, and now I can get all the way up there. I
spent tota time 2 hours, 60 to 90 minutes elaplsed time, going from the
left all the way to the right, and then back again.
****turns out they don't fit together that closely anyhow and a little
crud wouldn't interfere, but I'm still glad I started with clear ttape.
But then I didn't know if I had done a good job, and had to wait until
it rained. When it rained, I'd moved the clog and maybe made it
smaller, but now I need to know what the clog looks like so I can try to
flush it out again. Someone also suggested PVC pipe connected to a shop
vac to suck it out, but I still want to see where it is dirty and where
it is not. I have the vac and the PVC should cost less than 10
dollars.
The camera will be attached somehow to the water flusher (when it's dry)
or to the PVC.
Last summer a cottonwood tree fell down and seemed to free an awful lot
of cottonwood seeds, which formed a paste-like mess on a small part of
my yard. I think that's what it is, that it's sticky, and if I get it
off this year, since the tree fell down, I won't have to clean gutters
for several more years.
But if all this doesn't work, I'll borrow the ladder and a friend or I
will go up and clean it.
Thanks.
My neighbor has a leaf blower. He waits until the gutter is
bone dry, then blows the refuse out of the gutter that way.
I use a home made "gutter dustpan". It's a U-shaped piece of
sheet metal, like a scoop sorta. It is over a foot long. At
one end, a square piece of wood forms something to nail the
U-shaped sheet metal to, to make it maintain a U shape. The
other end, is an open metal U-shape. I use a paint stirrer
stick (wooden), to scoop stuff from the gutter, into the scoop.
The scoop fits inside the gutter, and makes a sort of
ramp so you can scoop debris up into the scoop, then
dump the scoop somewhere (into a bucket).
My debris includes a lot of gravel (tar and gravel roof),
as well as plant matter.
Both my neighbor and I, do this while looking down on the gutter,
so we have ladders for the job. That was one of the
first accessories I bought for my house, was the
requisite "tall enough" ladder. That ladder has
been through hell, and could tell a tale or two.
I've even had that ladder sitting on top of other
things, to make it taller
That's how I do
some tree trimming.
*******
When it is raining, and the gutter downspout drainhole is plugged,
I use a telescoping pole, with a dowel around 18" long on the end.
The assembly is shaped like this. I leave this assembled all the
time, as I've used it around a half-dozen times now.
+--+
| | 1.5 feet approx
| |
12 feet |
|
|
You stand underneath the place where the
drain hole is supposed to be, then poke
the dowel at the mass plugging the hole.
After a bit of poking, the plug loosens and
it starts to run. Yes, I get wet while doing
this in the rain, but it covers me for cases
where I forgot what season it is, what kind of
plant matter collects up there (maple leaves
or seeds) and so on. Under ideal conditions, I've
cleaned it with the other gadget. I don't own a leaf
blower, and don't intend to buy one soon, so
I will not be doing it as my neighbor does.
*******
With regard to holding a pole with a camera
on the end, you're never going to get the
image stable enough, to figure out the state
of the gutter. If your telescoping pole rests
against the gutter, that will help a bit, and
then it won't wiggle quite as badly.
I only provided a taste of the info on PoE,
to give some idea how the industry standard
for shoving 48V onto Ethernet cables, allows
getting remote power to things like wired IP
cameras. (The 48V is converted to other voltages,
by power converter at the load end.) PoE is not
documented well enough, for home users to be
using it. But people who install security cameras,
will have toys like that they can use during an
install. Some commercial routers, have PoE on
every port, which makes Ethernet security camera
installs a cinch.
*******
There are other options for you. Don't get
"too techy"
Be an inventor at heart. If
you take a mirror, perhaps a portable one
around 8" x 6" and swivel it at the right
angle, on the end of your telescoping pole,
that will be more practical as an inspection
aid than your camera idea. The advantage
there, is you crane your neck to maneuver
the pole, and at the same time, you can look
at the mirror.
I use such a technique for car repairs. When the
car leaks a fluid, I stick a pole under the car,
with a small mirror on the end. Around 3"x5".
I shove an extension light under the car,
for lighting. Then work the pole, and mirror,
until I can see stuff. The mirror is loosely
attached and with a bit of wiggling will
assume a 45 degree angle so I can get a reflection.
That's where the idea for doing that to your
gutter, comes to mind. You'll likely
need a bigger mirror, to make a decent
sized image. I bought a mirror specifically
for the car inspection idea. It was hard
to find a good one.
My last car leak, was fixed yesterday. Power
steering fluid on the return-to-reservoir side.
There's always some sort of puddle in my driveway.
Paul
