Busselton's gutter calendar
Five wet months
The Busselton Shire station puts the wettest period at May to September, with June averaging 164.1 mm and July 160.9 mm. A gutter that goes into May blocked overflows for the whole season, soaking fascias and eaves.
Storms refill them
The July 2021 storm that took a roof off in Eagle Bay brought a 92.6 km/h gust at the Busselton Jetty. Wind like that strips leaves, bark and twigs into gutters overnight, and can bend or loosen the gutters themselves.
Fire season on the bush fringe
WA's bushfire-prone areas take in bush plus a 100 m buffer. The NSW Rural Fire Service says 85% of houses lost in bushfires go to ember attack, and leaf litter sitting in a gutter is exactly where embers settle. Mapped blocks need their gutters empty before summer.
New houses aren't exempt
The City of Busselton is one of WA's fastest-growing areas, and newer localities like Vasse had 2,853 residents by 2021. Gutters on new homes can hold leftover building debris such as screws and metal offcuts, which rust and block outlets, so the first clean is worth booking early.
What a proper clean should include
Every leaf, strip of bark and clump of sludge removed and bagged, each downpipe flushed to prove it runs, and a written note with photos of anything bent, loose or rusting. After a winter storm, ask for the gutters to be checked for damage too, not just emptied.
Our national page on gutter cleaning covers the basics, and if you're cleaning often because of nearby trees or bush, gutter guards may be the better spend. On mapped land, choose metal ember guard.
Your job, or a roofer's?
You can
- Clearing a single-storey gutter from a solid ladder on level ground, on a dry day, if you're comfortable
- Flushing downpipes with a hose from the ground
- Clearing storm debris from the yard and around downpipe outlets
- Looking along the gutters from the ground after a storm for bends or sags
Leave to a roofer
- Two-storey homes and steep or awkward blocks
- Anything that needs someone up on the roof itself
- Storm-bent, sagging or rust-holed gutters
- Any house with an old fibro roof, until it's been tested for asbestos
Worth asking when you book
- Can you fit me in during April, before the wet starts?
- After a storm, will you look for bent brackets and loose joints and photograph them?
- Is flushing every downpipe included in the price?
- Do you take the debris with you?
- Are you insured for work at height?
What we'd do
April is the month we'd aim for, so the gutters go into May empty. After any big winter blow, we'd walk the house and look along the gutter line from the ground. On a bushfire-mapped block, we'd either clean again in late spring or fit metal ember guard and clean less often, whichever we'd actually keep up.
Want a roofer to take a look?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match it with a Find My Roofer certified roofer who specialises in that kind of work, and they call you to quote. Your number goes to them alone.