Last updated: July 2026
How much does gutter cleaning cost in San Diego?
Gutter cleaning in San Diego costs $150 to $300 for a single story home with 120 to 180 linear feet of gutter, and $250 to $450 for two story. Exterior window cleaning on the same visit adds $8 to $12 per pane. Most combined jobs take two to four hours.
The number moves on height and access, not on how dirty the gutters look from the driveway.
A ranch house in Clairemont with the truck parked 30 feet from the ladder is a 90 minute job. The same amount of gutter on a canyon lot in Point Loma, where the back half of the run sits over a slope and needs a standoff and a second ladder set, takes closer to three hours and prices accordingly.
Why do San Diego gutters clog if it barely rains?
Rain is not what fills them. Trees are.
Torrey pine needles pack into a mat that water runs straight over. Jacaranda blossoms in Kensington rot into a paste that sets like grout in the bottom of the trough. Eucalyptus bark curls and wedges sideways into the downspout elbow. All of that lands during dry months, sits through summer, and is waiting there when the first real rain arrives in November.
We pulled a five gallon bucket of dry needles off a Point Loma house last October. Nothing had drained through that side in two seasons and the fascia behind the trough was already soft.
The 6 inch gutter question
Older stock across most of the city runs 5 inch K-style with 2 by 3 downspouts. Newer builds and remodels in Encinitas, Carlsbad, and Del Mar tend to run 6 inch trough with 3 by 4 downspouts. The bigger trough holds roughly 40 percent more water, which sounds like less maintenance and is not. It just means the clog moves from the trough down to the elbow where you cannot see it. We flush every downspout and watch the outlet before we call it done.
What does the pricing actually look like?
| Service | Typical home | Price range | Time on site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gutter cleaning, single story | 120 to 180 linear ft | $150 to $300 | 1 to 2 hrs |
| Gutter cleaning, two story | 180 to 260 linear ft | $250 to $450 | 2 to 4 hrs |
| Exterior windows only | 20 to 35 panes | $8 to $12 per pane | 1.5 to 3 hrs |
| Windows and gutters together | single story, 25 panes | $300 to $475 | 3 to 4 hrs |
| Downspout unclog, buried line | per downspout | $45 to $95 | 20 to 45 min |
Bundling is cheaper because the ladder is already set. Staging the rig, running hose, and finding a working spigot eats 20 minutes before anyone touches a gutter, and we only pay that cost once.
Do windows really need cleaning after the gutters?
They need it in that order, yes. Flushing a trough sends grit and black organic runoff down the wall and across the glass below. We clean gutters first, rinse the elevation, then do glass last with a water-fed pole and deionized water near 0 TDS so nothing dries into spots.
Coastal glass is its own problem. Salt film in Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach builds a haze that a squeegee and soap will smear rather than remove. It takes a pure water rinse and a second pass.
We stopped offering interior window cleaning as a standalone. Too much furniture moving, and the margin never worked.
How often to book it
Twice a year on a lot with pines, eucalyptus, or jacaranda. Once a year, in October before the marine layer turns to actual rain, on a lot with nothing overhanging the roof. Santa Ana winds in late fall will refill a clean gutter in a single week, which is why we push people toward late October rather than August.
If a roof is already streaked when we get up there, that is a separate soft washing job at 100 to 150 PSI, not something to fix with a gutter flush. Full scope and current availability are on our window and gutter cleaning page, and the reasons San Diego gutters fill so fast are covered in this breakdown. North county homes with 6 inch trough are covered out of our Encinitas route.
If our crew cleaned your gutters, mention the neighborhood and the service in your Google review. It helps neighbors on the same block find us.