[Closed] How do I get up to the gutter to repair it?

Out the skylight in loft, rope around the chimney stack base and through a climbing harness?

Swing really fast on the swing and then let go launching self into the air.

Thanks 🙂 No skylight unfortunately - think that at the top of the pic is a shadow from the chimney...

The swing isn't there - the pic was from when we bought the house about four years ago.

Reckon the roof would hold, just put something on it 1st to spread your weight

Well ladder up the side that doesn't have extension. Lasso the chimney stack to secure a safety line, attach to climbing harness and tackle the traverse to the offending gutter.

Or just call a "Bloke in a van" type service and let some enthusiastic young Polish guy risk his neck while you have a brew. 😀

Ladder and get a really fat mate to hold the bottom of it. Afterall there isnt far to slide anyway, just onto the lower roof.

Stilts. Very long stilts

Don't your window cleaners stand on extensions roof ? Do the same but just be careful.

Just to check it out, I would walk on the roof of the extension bit where the back door is. Support your weight with a ladder horizontally across the top - tie it through the windows to stop it slipping down. Tie a plank over the ladder rungs.

But if it neads serious work I would use a scaffold.

Window cleaner? Do you think I'm posh or something? I clean the windows! 🙂

Normal sized people would be ok on that roof clubber, but you'll plummet through, leaving just your head poking out of the hole.

HTH. 😛

Would I still be able to reach the gutter then?

Rope strung between windows. Small trampoline in garden. Bounce up and balance on rope to inspect gutter.

Do we have to think of everything for you?

You have a trampoline no? Throw wife, son or both on trampoline land on roof, they fix guttering.

You go for pint.

Well, you'd be able to put a ladder in the hole then no? 😉

if your really concerned jump up and down on next doors extension 1st to gauge how strong it is

TooTall's winning so far 🙂

didn't the blokes who tiled the extension roof stand on it?

You just need one of these.

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iDave - no idea. Like I said, I suspect that it'd be fine to stand on it but would rather know that typically people do it and it is fine before giving it a go 🙂

Rio - got one going spare?

you'll be fine on the roof as long as you put something on to spread your weight. The structure should be plenty strong enough, but the individual tiles may not.

Have you got someone who can drive a car for you? If so, just get a long rope and throw it over the house. Hitch it to the car and tie yourself on the other end. Drive the car away et voila.

Craggyjim is now in the lead 🙂

Mos - thanks - suggestions on what to use though - a sheet of wood/etc would just slide down I reckon which would be even more comedy (not for me, mind) than if I put my foot through the roof...

You wont go through the roof - they're made to hold certain weight loads, like snow etc.

Just getting up there will be a PITA, so I suggest lots of Red Bull 'cos it gives you wiiiiiiiings!

Plus if you have enough you wont feel the impact when you fall off 😆

Stand on the end of Giles's bars, turn the steering 90 degrees, you should be about the right height to step on to the roof.

You're a 29er rider now. Just wheelie and put the power down - that extension is barely a pothole to the big wheels. Turn as you do so and track stand on the extension roof. The extra grip you get from the bigger contact patch will spread the weight and keep you there while you check things out. Then a cheeky bunny hop and you're back on terra firma. Use a helmet cam at the same time so you can view the detail at a later date.

Lay a scaffold board on the extension's roof tiles to spread you weight. The extension roof is at the level of the bedroom windows, so I doubt if you will need ladder (unless you are 5ft tall).

To stop the board slipping on the pitched roof, put a couple of beefy screws in the board and attach some adequate nylon rope. Better still, drill holes in the board.

Haul it up the pitch until it's parallel and a foot or two from the bedroom wall.

Feed these ropes, one through each bedroom window.

Tie the ends to a couple of lengths of timber too wide to pull through the openings and so they are held fast. Wrap something round these to protect your internal decor.

Then step out carefully and sort it out.

Guttering is cheap as chips and use a large trowel to lift tiles so you can see under them to check the felt etc.

Roofing work is pretty easy when you have gained access.

Make sure nobody is below you and breakables are out of the way.

If you are feeling worried about the unlikely event of falling off your shallow pitched roof, tie yourself to one of the internal anchor boards before you step out. Use enough rope to do your work, but keep it short enough to stop you falling off.

Also, move anything below the roof that could do you a nasty if you did fall.

A professional roofer would just step out of the window, no board, no harness, but they are used to chancing it and have the right footwear.

Good points KT and TooTall.

Giles managed to hit a tree the other night in LW - serves him right 😉

(My 27" bars are on order but the hacksaw's prep'd and ready...)

Good points KT and TooTall.

Giles managed to hit a tree the other night in LW - serves him right

(My 27" bars are on order but the hacksaw's prep'd and ready...)

TBH with bars that wide he could hit lamp posts.

clubber - I thought you were a narrow bar retro jeyboy? The 30" bars on my ScandAL were OK in LW last week. You just have to work a wee bit harder in places!

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The roof of the extension should hold your weight.

[sensible answer]If you're not confident with that you could try [url= http://www.hss.com/c/1014413/Trestles-Staging-and-Steps.html ]steps and stages[/url] to give a more stable base to work from or even put a second set of steps[/sensible answer]

Spongebob - perfect - thanks a lot for that.

I hate wide bars but I do ride 25-26" by preference which is wider than the 24" ones (less about an inch for bar ends) that I have currently.

Screw some old spd pedals to a couple of boards and then clip in. No need then to secure a plank and could also be useful if we get a lot of snow again this winter.

You'd have to work hard to fall off that. I'd just go up and do it. Particularly if I had house insurance.

Could you stand on that red arrow thing between the two windows? Looks ideal...

You'd have to work hard to fall off that

It's that kind of attitude that made Emu an Orphan.

It's that kind of attitude that made Emu an Orphan.

How about a small scaffold rig to get up the extension height, then a short ladder (tied well to the rig) to the roof line.

😆

to be fair tho, if he'd been able to hold on properly rather than having to work the bird he might be with us today.

ROD HULL'S DEAD!!! 😯 OMG WTF ROTFC etc!!!

I'd not use screws in a plank, instead, dust sheets or other fabric, looks like a tiled roof, so the fabric will snag and not slip(unlike a screw imheo).

Personally i never used a safety rope, however will certainly recommend one as you're clearly not used to such work (as well as it being the sensible thing to do) Not too much rope though, as said enough to do the work.

It sounds like there's a slight blockage or failed union(joiner)any roof lining should be in the gutter so long as it's not rotten, torn off and causing a blockage.

Work safe and if can wait a month or so, i'll come and do it for you.

Whats wrong with renting a very long ladder and staking the end firmly into the turf so it can work at a shallow angle. Depends how shallow though.

I think I can see the problem.

Some lunatic's fixed a large red arrow to the side of your house.

Cougar. Hang your head in shame - been done already 😉

Sharki - thanks for the offer - sure I can do it myself though 🙂 When you say a dust sheet, do you mean instead of the plank or under it?

Have you ever seen a gigantic tree come down with a mighty "thwack" after being felled by a lumberjack? (big plumes of dust etc from the sides as it falls). Well that's how I came down when I tried to do exactly what you're describing. I had exactly the same dilemma about 18 months ago. Guttering blocked and overflowing, can't put a ladder up, single storey lean-to below.
Mistake number one was choosing to do it after recent rainfall. Mistake number two was doing it in slippers. Mistake number 3 was doing it whilst Mrs T had nipped out to the shops. Mistake number 4 was leaving my mobile phone on the kitchen table. Mistake number 5 was climbing out through an upstairs window onto the lean-to roof without using some sort of safety harness-cum-airbag-cum-helicopter device. The climbing out bit was easy. The difficult bit was letting go of the window frame and getting up from the crouching position. As I was about 75% vertical in position, there was a tiny, barely noticeable cracking noise under my left foot. I froze. Looked down and in about 3 milliseconds, the cracking noise morphed into a cracked tile. I wobbled slightly and began windmilling my arms either side in an attempt to retain balance. The cracked tile shot backwards, both my feet slipped down hill really (and I mean [b]really[/b]) fast and I slapped down, face first onto the tiles. You'd think that would be the end of it. After I got over the initial winding (which took a good 10 minutes) I noticed that, beneath me, was a "spread eagle" shaped collection of cracked roof tiles. Every breath hurt, I was lying face down on the tiles in the crucufix position and I was slipping slowly down the roof (about 1cm per five minutes but enough to detect that there was a degree of slippage). I daren't move. Then it rained. Hard. All I could say was "B******s".
It took a good 45 minutes before Mrs T returned home, by which time, my feet were down to about gutter level of the lean-to and my fingernails had no more grip left in them. It took her a good 15 minutes to find me because, although she could hear a tremulous voice whispering "help, this is not a joke", the last place she expected to find me was on the roof. She then summoned help from a neighbour who put a ladder against the lean-to guttering and eased me down, making the sorts of noises they make at those Greek, plate smashing parties and destroying a few more roof tiles and what was left of the lean-to guttering in the process. By the time it was over, you'd have struggled to cause more damage if you had unrestricted use of a wrecker ball.
We had to have a roofer in to replace the broken tiles and guttering. The original blockage was caused by one of the kids shuttle-cocks......
I won't tell you how much it cost in the end. Take my advice - Ask a grown up to do it.

Excellent story, Tinners!

Suggestion - go to CERN for a bit, see if they'll let you get whizzed round the particle accelerator after work (ask them nicely), then when you're all weightless and unencumbered by gravity come back and just float up to it? (Watch out though if the effects suddenly wear off).

Tinners - I'm glad I have an office to myself - I'm crying with laughter now...

That kind of thing is exactly my concern...

tinners, that is so funny. thank's.

Clubber, put a DRY plank on the fabric, the fabric should be of sufficient amount to make a padded support and support as much of the plank as you can.

Just massive amounts of caution is needed, it's not how far you may fall, it's the way you may land.

Tinners is my hero.

Just mtfu and walk on it .As a window cleaner I walk on those sort of rooves often,it's the slate and flat concrete tiles that break easily .The pitch is quite shallow so you will not plummet to your death.

Yay! 🙂

Tinners - very funny (sorry)!

LOL

I'm sure thats not the right reaction...

Oh dear I hope you are ok tinners.

Normal sized people would be ok on that roof clubber, but you'll plummet through, leaving just your head poking out of the hole.

HTH.

That' not very kind, is it? Or helpful. 🙁

Have you considered asking a friend with very long arms that's good at riding on tall cows to see if they can reach up that far?

Get a few mates round!
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