What it costs
| Source | Range | Typical |
|---|---|---|
| This Old House, June 2026 | $191 to $529 per appointment | $360 |
| Fixr, January 2025 | $200 to $400 | around $300 |
The two agree closely, which is worth noting because they do not always. The Fixr typical case is 150 linear feet with minimal buildup on a two-storey house.
One caveat on the This Old House average. They attribute the $360 figure to LeafFilter, a company that sells gutter protection. A number published by a business that profits from gutter work is not automatically wrong, but it is not a neutral measurement either, and we think you should know where it comes from. Their own range, $191 to $529, is the more useful part.
The number that sets your price
Forget the average. Gutter cleaning is quoted per linear foot, and the rate roughly triples with height. From Fixr:
| House height | Per linear foot |
|---|---|
| one storey | $0.70 to $1.50 |
| two storeys | $1.50 to $2.50 |
| three storeys | $2.50 to $3.20 |
Fixr's explanation for the jump: the extra height requires extension ladders, specialty tools, and a second worker, which increases the cost.
This Old House reports the same effect from the other end, giving $210 to $450 for a three-storey home.
Work out your own number
Fixr gives a rule of thumb: every 100 square feet of house has about 10 linear feet of gutter. So a 1,500 square foot house has roughly 150 linear feet and a 2,000 square foot house around 200.
Our arithmetic, marked as ours. Multiply that by Fixr's rate for your height:
| House | Linear feet | One storey | Two storeys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,500 sq ft | about 150 | $105 to $225 | $225 to $375 |
| 2,000 sq ft | about 200 | $140 to $300 | $300 to $500 |
Fixr publishes the rule of thumb and the rates; the multiplication is ours. Fixr's own worked figure for a 150-foot home, $105 to $480 across heights, sits inside the same band, which is a reasonable check that the arithmetic holds.
What pushes it to the top of the range
- A clogged downspout. Fixr: this frequently adds $50 to $100, making the total $170 to $350. If the downspout is not clogged, clearing it should already be in the flat-rate quote. A blockage is also far more common than a failed downspout, which our downspout page goes into.
- Access. Fixr's high-end example is $650 for 200 linear feet of hard-to-access gutters with a clogged downspout and some repairs.
- Buildup. The $70 low end is 100 linear feet on a single-storey house with no buildup, which is an inspection more than a clean.
What a clean should include
Fixr lists the standard scope: clearing out and inspecting the gutters, unclogging downspouts, repairing fasteners and seals, and removing dirt and debris.
The width of the gutters and the size of the downspouts change how fast a crew can work, and our sizing page covers which sizes a house should have.
Our advice, marked as ours: get the per-linear-foot rate before the visit, and tell them your footage and how many downspouts you have. A flat quote given over the phone without those two numbers is a guess, and guesses are revised upward on the ladder. Fixr makes the same point about confirming per-foot rates; the rest is ours.
How often
This Old House: gutters require cleaning at least twice per year on average, and systems with gutter guards only need cleaning about once a year.
How often you actually need it, and what a survey of 1,000 homeowners says people really do, is on our cleaning frequency page.
Our arithmetic, marked as ours. Two cleans a year at the $300 Fixr typical is $600 annually. That is the number worth holding against a gutter guard quote, whether from a local contractor or a branded system such as LeafFilter or Leafguard, where the two published sources disagree by a factor of fifteen and the payback period swings wildly depending on which you believe.
If the cleaning visit turns up sagging, leaks or separated seams, that is a different job. See gutter repair cost.
Sources
- Fixr, Gutter Cleaning Cost, updated January 31, 2025 (per-foot rates by storey, clogged downspout surcharge, linear-foot rule of thumb)
- This Old House, How Much Does Gutter Cleaning Cost? 2026 Pricing and Saving Tips, updated June 17, 2026 (per-appointment range, frequency)
Price figures are national US ranges from the sources above as of the date shown. Your local price depends on labor rates, permits and site conditions. Read how we get our numbers.