Why the tree matters more than the calendar
Lakewood has about a third of its ground under tree canopy and the city is planting toward more. Most of those trees live on the tree lawn, the strip between the sidewalk and the street, which puts their crowns directly over the front gutters of the houses behind them. What species is out there sets what lands in the gutter and when.
Two cleanings a year is the right number for most houses here. Where they fall in the year, and whether one house needs a third, comes from the tree.
Maple: the May problem nobody schedules for
Norway and silver maples are the most common tree-lawn trees on these streets, and they drop twice. The leaves come down in late October with everyone else. The seed comes down in May, in about one week, and it is the worse of the two for a gutter.
A maple helicopter is a small wing with a seed that fits through most gutter screens and packs into the bottom of the trough as a wet mat. Thousands of them land in a week. A north-facing gutter under a big maple can be full before Memorial Day, then sprout in June. The spring cleaning on a maple house belongs in late May or June, after the seed drops, not in April when the gutter was still clean from the fall.
Sycamore: late, big, and all at once
The old American sycamores along the wider streets are the biggest trees in the city, and they shed everything. Bark plates come down all summer. The leaves are the size of a dinner plate and they drop late, often into the second week of November, after the maples are bare.
A sycamore house should not book the fall cleaning by the first cold week. If the crew comes while the sycamore is still half full, the gutter is full again in ten days. On a sycamore street the fall cleaning belongs in mid-to-late November, which also lines up with the city’s leaf collection window. Lakewood picks up leaves from the tree lawn from November 1 through December 15, so the bagged gutter debris goes out with the yard leaves on the same schedule.
Oak: the one that waits for winter
Pin oaks and red oaks hold their leaves into December, some of them until spring. A house under an oak can get a clean fall cleaning in November and still have a gutter full of leathery brown leaves in February, frozen into a block. Oak houses do best with the fall cleaning as late as the weather allows, in December, and a short spring check for what the winter shook loose.
Pine and spruce: needles year-round
The evergreens do not have a season. Needles come down steadily, and a gutter under a big spruce fills slowly all year with a material that mats and holds water. Twice a year still works, but the second visit matters more than on a leafy street, because needles do not blow out on their own the way a dry maple leaf sometimes does.
The house with no tree
Some blocks lost their tree lawn trees to storms or Dutch elm decades ago and never replanted. A house with open sky over the roof gets shingle grit, the neighbor’s leaves on a windy day, and the occasional nest. Once a year in the fall is honest for that house, and anyone selling it twice-a-year service is selling.
Putting it together for a Lakewood house
| What’s on the tree lawn | Spring | Fall |
|---|---|---|
| Maple | Late May or June, after the seed | Early November |
| Sycamore | May | Mid to late November |
| Oak | April, after the last leaves let go | December |
| Pine or spruce | Any time | Any time, but do both |
| Nothing | Skip | November |
The signs you are overdue do not depend on the tree: water pouring over the edge at one corner in a rain, a downspout that runs a trickle while the roof runs a river, grass growing where the gutter should be, and in winter, icicles hanging off the gutter’s lip instead of running out the downspout. Any of those means call rather than wait for the season.
Prices for a cleaning by house type are on the cost page. If the gutter under your tree is past cleaning and into sagging, the repair page is next.