Chemainus Gutter Cleaning, South from Nanaimo

Chemainus is the southern edge of the area we cover from Nanaimo, about 35 km down Highway 1 and in at the marked turnoff. It is a small town, but its houses were built in very different ways, and that decides more about a gutter visit here than the drive does.

Most of what we clean in Chemainus falls into one of three groups, and each fills up for its own reasons.

Mill-family houses in Old Town

Chemainus became a company town in 1862, when the first sawmill was built. After the Second World War the lumber company turned its old lumber yards into subdivisions for its workers, many of them returning veterans. In 1948 dozens of houses were even barged in from a US military base at Bremerton, Washington, and six of those still stand in Old Town.

Houses built for working families were rarely fussy, and a plain roof drains well. The trouble on these lots is age rather than design. Over the decades many have been re-roofed, re-guttered and added onto, sometimes more than once, and the places where old work meets new are where leaks start.

On an Old Town job we empty the trough, flush each downspout, then run water slowly along every join where an addition meets the original house. A drip at one of those joins is a quick reseal today. Left for a few winters, it is a soft fascia board. If a section needs more than sealant, gutter repair is part of what we do.

Homes beside the forested parks

Askew Creek Park is a forested park right in town with about 8 km of trails, and Wul’aam (Echo) Park adds more trees nearby. Houses backing onto either take a different kind of load. Douglas fir and western red cedar shed small needles and fronds through the whole year. They wash to the bottom of the trough and settle into a dense, wet mat that a garden hose barely moves, and moss grows in it by spring.

On these streets a single fall visit is often not enough. These are also the lots where gutter guards earn their keep. A guard will not make a gutter maintenance-free under conifers, but it keeps fine needles out of the downspout, and the downspout is the part that blocks.

Bigger lots out by Fuller Lake

Toward Fuller Lake and the highway, lots get larger and the trees get closer. Gutter runs are longer, garages and workshops often stand apart from the house, and downspouts tend to empty onto open ground or into a pipe buried somewhere under the lawn. We flush each downspout and watch the outlet. If water backs up at ground level, the buried line is blocked; we show you where.

By the water, but sheltered

Chemainus fronts Stuart Channel, with Thetis and Penelakut Islands across it, rather than the open Strait of Georgia. Homes near Kin Beach get far less of the sideways, wind-driven rain that hammers waterfront houses north of Nanaimo. The shelter changes how hard the rain lands. It does not change what falls into the gutter, which here is still mostly leaves and needles.

Booking a Chemainus visit

Tell us the address, how many storeys the house has and whether there are outbuildings or big trees close to the roof. We work weekdays, and every bag of debris leaves with us.