5 Best Ways To Choose Your Gutter Cleaner
Home maintenance- we don’t love it but we have to do it! How can you tell which company to hire? It seems every company claims they are the best or have the best prices but how do you know which is truly the best or has the best practices?
Here at Streakless, we’ve been in business since 1992 and we’ve heard some stories! You can’t imagine the things we’ve seen and clients we’ve had to talk off the ledge (or the gutter) after some bad experiences!
Want to start with the basics? Check out 4 Reasons to Clean Your Gutters or some Frequently Asked Questions
All caught up? Let’s jump in!
1. Choose a company with Worker’s Compensation Insurance
Did you know that as a homeowner, you may be financially targeted if a worker is injured on your premises. That is why we always recommend checking if the company you are hiring has Workers Compensation Insurance.
To find out if a company in California has Worker’s Compensation, click here
It is still surprising how many companies misrepresent their Worker’s Compensation status. Some companies will say things like ‘We are fully covered!’ but fail to mention that the majority of the worker’s going onto a job site is not a full time employee, but an uninsured subcontractor. What does this mean to you? If an uninsured subcontractor gets hurt while cleaning your gutters, you can be held liable. Don’t forget to ask the company you are hiring if ALL technicians under them are full time employees covered under Worker’s Compensation or if some are uninsured subcontractors.
2. Choose a company with Liability Insurance
Let’s say someone comes over to clean your gutters and accidentally damages a downspout. Who is responsible? A company without Liability Insurance might just say ‘Sorry about that’ and go ghost. Now who is carrying the burden of fixing that downspout? Unfortunately, it would be the homeowner if the company does not have Liability Insurance.
Hiring a company with Liability Insurance ensures that their insurance company is responsible for damages caused by the company. No guesswork! You can rest easy knowing you are insured in case anything goes wrong.
How do you verify this? Just ask the company to email a copy of their Liability Insurance! It’s that easy!
3. Choose a company that will send employees to your home
Subcontractors (also known as 1099 employees) vs Employees: What is the difference and how does it affect you? A subcontractor is usually someone who provides their own tools, vehicle and expertise to complete a job. They do not go through any company specific training, are not insured and ultimately, it is hard for a company to hold them accountable if anything goes wrong on a jobsite because they go home and do not need to return.
A full time employee is hired by a company, provided with training specific to the company’s specifications, provided with tools and a vehicle to complete a job, and held accountable to the company. A full time employee, though they may come with previous experience, goes through training on how that particular company wants the job done for their clients, usually a higher standard than a subcontractor. If something isn’t done properly, we can return to get it done properly, in a timely fashion and work on retraining the employee to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Personally, my dad taught me at a young age the importance of having a clean conscience and being able to look at myself in the mirror knowing I’ve done my best to be a good person. That’s why not complying with California’s employment laws was never an option.
It’s worth noting that there are lots of great technicians out there that due to their personal situations get taken advantage of and are given the responsibility of full time employees (without the benefits) while being subcontractors or paid under the table.
Here are some of the ways these good workers can get taken advantage of by being mislabeled subcontractors while getting treated like full time employees or getting paid under the table:
- They don’t get mandatory 15-minute breaks after every four hours of work
- No lunch breaks
- No overtime pay
- No state mandated 5 paid sick days a year
- No state mandated CalSavers retirement accounts
- No unemployment insurance
- No workman’s compensation in case of injury
- No paid travel time between jobs
- They have to buy their own equipment and supplies
- They have to supply their own transportation
- They have to buy their own gas and maintain for their vehicle
- If they aren’t authorized to work in this country, circumstances are often even worse because they fear any complaint can lead to deportation
- Issues can get much worse if these good people are working for people with bad intent
Not all cleaning companies that mislabel their workers or pay workers under the table have bad bosses. From what I’ve heard, their point of view is that they can’t afford to stay in business and have employees, or all the red tape and regulations is too time consuming and confusing to deal with.
When you are looking to hire a company, there is no way to distinguish which law breaking companies might actually be a good company. That is why we recommend going with a company that is dotting all of their i’s and crossing all of their t’s.
4. Check out their website and see if the technician or worker coming to your house is listed
Having someone come to your home is intimate. Your home is your safe space, your oasis, the nest you return to at the end of the day. Ultimately, it can be a bit frightening to have someone know where you live, what your home looks like, etc. Hundreds, if not thousands, of our first time clients ask who is coming to their home before their appointment. This gives them an added level of security.
Our team pulls up in the company truck with our logo and phone number and is greeted by employees with a uniform matching our company truck and clients love being able to ask “What’s your name?” and verify that the employee at the front door is in fact who the office team said it would be!
Here at Streakless, we take it a step further and ensure that our employees’ photos are posted on our website! There are no surprises or hesitations as to who is coming over, what they look like, or if they belong with our company! We care the most about ensuring that our clients feel comfortable with the team coming to their home!
5. Ask what’s involved in a gutter cleaning
How thorough is the company you are thinking about hiring? When you call a company for an estimate, as them what is included in their gutter cleaning. Are they getting down and dirty to make sure everything is clear?
Here are our standards: We dont just start at the gutters. We begin by blowing off all debris from the roof. If this isn’t done first, over the next few weeks or even days, it is very easy for the leftover debris from the roof to clog the gutters, meaning you need a gutter cleaning more often.
Next, we head over to the gutters and get all the debris out of the gutters. Some homes have gutter guards installed, meaning each guard has to be unscrewed, cleaned, then screwed back in. This is more time consuming and can come with a bit of a higher price tag.
Finally, we move on to the downspouts. This is the pipe area that heads down the home, usually towards the corners. Different methods can be used to clean downspouts but our method is usually to snake it out all the way to the bottom, ensuring there is no debris left. We then do a water test and pour some water in the gutters and ensure it makes it down the entire gutter and out the downspout.
An optional add on is bagging debris- this means instead of blowing the debris off the roof and onto the landscaping around the home, we bag it up and toss it in a trash can on the premises.
Considering gutters are thinner pieces of metal, we use ladder levelers to stay off the gutters. This means the ladder leans on the home instead of the gutters themselves to avoid dents in the gutters.
When calling to choose a company to work on your gutters, ask for step-by-step instructions on how they do their gutters. Are they skipping any of these steps? Are they sending out subcontractors who follow their own plan or employees who have been trained step by step?
The Run Down:
Having anyone work on your home comes with inherent risks. That is why it is important to do our due diligence on a company before hiring them. Picking a company that has Worker’s Compensation and Liability Insurance, has full time employees that you can see their name and photo before hand and asking specific step by step questions to ensure the job is being done to your satisfaction.
If you find yourself in Marin or Sonoma County, California, we would love to chat and provide an estimate on your home! Here at Streakless, we pride ourselves in caring about the integrity of your home above all else! Feel free to give us a call or send us an email!
More resources:
Have more questions? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure why gutter cleaning is important? Check out 4 Reasons to Clean Your Gutter
