Rainwater-Safe Gutter & Roof Cleaning
Your roof is the first stage of your filtration. We clear gutters and catchment surfaces with pressure water only — no detergents, no treatments, nothing that ends up in your tank.
The short answer
Only with pressure water. Detergents, degreasers, moss treatments, and roof sealants all wash into the tank and end up in your drinking water. Standard gutter cleaning services routinely use products that contaminate a potable catchment, which is why gutter work on a rainwater system has to be done differently.
This is the one service where the difference between us and a general gutter company matters most. A standard crew will spray detergent or a moss treatment on a roof without thinking twice. On a catchment roof, everything applied up there ends up in the tank, then in the filters, then at the tap.
Before you call
Three things worth checking before you book. The third one matters more than people expect.
If you can't see the bottom of the trough from a ladder, they're full. Standing debris holds water, leaches tannins, and sends the worst of it to your tank with the next rain.
A diverter that fills quickly between rains means the roof and gutters are shedding more debris than the system was designed to handle. That's a catchment problem, not a diverter problem.
Moss killers, sealants, and cleaning products stay on the surface and wash into the tank. If anything has been applied up there, tell us before we service the system.
How we diagnose it
Gutter and roof problems almost always announce themselves downstream, at the diverter or the filters, before anyone thinks to look up.
| What you're seeing | Usual cause | What it takes to fix |
|---|---|---|
| Gutters overflowing in moderate rain | Troughs full or downspout blocked | Clear troughs and downspouts, then verify flow reaches the diverter. |
| First flush filling between rains | Heavy debris load on the roof | Full roof and gutter clean, then check screens and diverter sizing. |
| Water in the tank looks tea-coloured | Tannins leaching from standing debris | Clear the troughs, then assess whether carbon needs replacing. |
| Filters loading unusually fast | Organic load coming off the catchment | Clean the roof and gutters first, cartridges second. Order matters. |
| Grit in the tank after storms | Roof surface degrading, or unscreened inlet | Inspect the roof coating and replace inlet screens. |
| Moss or staining on the roof | Shade and retained moisture | Pressure water only. Never a chemical treatment on a catchment surface. |
The visit
Troughs emptied, downspouts flushed, roof surface cleared. Pressure water is the only thing that touches a catchment surface — no exceptions, whatever the staining looks like.
A clean-out loosens material that would otherwise head straight for the tank, so the inlet screens get checked and the first flush gets cleared on the same visit.
Coating condition, degradation, and anything up there that shouldn't be. Roof material is the first stage of your filtration and the one nobody thinks to look at.
We check what actually reached the tank and whether filters need changing sooner than scheduled. A clean-out that ignores what it dislodged just moves the problem.
Equipment
Pressure water and hand clearing. That's the entire list, and the omissions are the point — no detergents, no degreasers, no moss killers, no sealants, no roof treatments of any kind.
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FAQ
