Longleaf straw does not float out. It mats, and it plugs the downspout from the top down.
Dothan gets about 56 inches of rain a year against a national average of 38, and it does not arrive politely. It arrives as Gulf-fed thunderstorms that put an inch down in twenty minutes. That is the number that decides how often a gutter here needs clearing, and it is why the interval that works in Ohio does not work in the Wiregrass.
The second factor is what is falling into it. Around Westgate and the Highland Country Club the canopy is heavily longleaf pine, and pine straw behaves nothing like leaves. Leaves float and a hard rain flushes a fair share of them through. Straw does not float. It mats into a dense felt that water passes over rather than through, and the mat migrates to the downspout opening and sets there like a plug.
Homeowners check gutters by looking into them from a ladder, see an inch of debris and conclude it is fine. Meanwhile the actual blockage is eighteen inches down the downspout where nobody looks, formed from straw that washed there over three months.
That is why every clearing we do finishes with water down every downspout until it runs clean at the bottom, and why we say plainly that a job which only scoops the trough is half a job. If someone cleared your gutters and never ran water, the odds are good the plug is still there.
Under mature pine: three times a year, and the third one matters most - late autumn, after the heaviest straw shed, going into the winter rain. Under mixed oak and hardwood without pine overhead: twice. On a newer lot in an open subdivision with nothing tall near the roofline: once a year is genuinely enough and we will tell you so rather than sell you a schedule.
Dothan is our home route, so scheduling here is same-week outside the peak weeks in October and November.
Usually because the trough was cleared and the downspout was not. Straw compacts into the outlet and a scoop-only clean leaves it in place. Ask whoever cleaned them whether water was run through to the bottom - that is the whole test.
For gutters, considerably. Leaves are buoyant and a heavy rain moves a percentage of them along. Straw mats into a felt that water sheets over, and the mat travels to the outlet and sets. Same volume of debris, very different outcome.
Most single-story homes run $100-$175 and two-story homes $150-$225, with large or steep-access roofs $225-$300 and up. Linear footage, pitch and access decide it, and you get the number before we start.
Tell us a bit about your home and we'll follow up with a straightforward price - usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call (334) 845-8127.
Tell us roughly how much pine is over the roof and when it was last done. That is usually enough for a price.
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