Gutter Cleaning - Rope Access as a Gutter Cleaning Solution for Tenement Buildings



Posted: Tuesday, December 09, 2008

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An ever increasing amount of people living in tenement buildings in cities like Edinburgh, are having serious problem with their gutters and downpipes. For the most part the problems are caused by a simple blockage / vegetation growing in the gutters or minor maintenance problems such as seam lining, that have been allowed to go on untended for too long without gutter cleaning or gutter maintenance.

The reason that these guttering problems have not been simply taken care of long ago is obvious; there aren't many cost effective, quick and easy solutions to cleaning gutters or gutter maintenance on tenement blocks / at height. People are understandably extremely wary of having to pay out huge sums for scaffolding to allow workers to get to the problem area. What's more the various red tape associated with erecting scaffolding on public streets causes delays and complications. Similarly, the cost of a cherry picker and operative, which is another potential solution (where a cherry picker can actually gain access to the street) is much too high for what is essentially at its basic level, just the minor task of maintenance, clearing unblocking or gutter cleaning.

This is where rope access comes in. Rope access technicians can carry out work effectively in awkward situations and can easily access tricky areas such as roof tops, gutters, building facades and other areas at height, either by rigging from the rooftop or by finding another access point. Rope access is less obtrusive and almost always quicker and cheaper than the alternatives such as scaffolding or a cherry picker, and a rope access team can be in and out with the minimum of disruption for a fraction of the cost.

The problem is that not enough people know about rope access as a viable solution to maintenance problems such as gutter cleaning. Either they don't know about rope access at all, or think of it as something that is used only in construction or offshore settings. The truth is that despite still being rare, there are a growing number of rope access technicians and companies who work onshore and will happily provide domestic services. As well as rope access skills they bring with them combinations of other valuable skills such as roofing, maintenance, stonework, civil engineering and many more, making rope access the perfect solution for most maintenance issues at height, from small issues such as gutter cleaning to larger maintenance and repair jobs.

The reasons to use rope access for these types of jobs is obvious. Unlike other solutions to gutter cleaning in tenement buildings and other maintenance problems at heght, the time taken to install access systems is minimal with minimal impact on structure and surroundings including traffic flow and pedestrian access. Rope access has extremely safe codes of practice (the best record in the field of difficult access), and work can safely be carried out safely, quickly and cost effectively at any height in almost any situation, saving time, money and avoiding the complications that other gutter cleaning solutions might present.

Rope access for gutter cleaning 
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