Most of our gutters, even the ones up top, we can reach–except one that's on the side of the house. It's on the second story part of the house.
I'm not going up there, even with a ladder.
I can (and usually) pay someone, but that hasn't been the most reliable solution.
So, how to do this one my own? Is one of those water-jet setups the answer? And, if so, I'm going to get totally soaked, huh?
I have a situation like that on the back of my house. A ladder set firmly in place is the answer. I clean the gutter by hand every 3 or 4 weeks. No fun at all.
And you are making all the different gutter guard commercials run through my head. lol
I hear ya but I'd really, really rather not go up there on a ladder. In fact, I'm going to say that I'm not going up there on a ladder. 
Remove the gutter. Install a rock water landing area down the side of the house. Never clean that gutter again. The only reason I have gutters is I have no trees.
Maybe some eBay shopping for one of these:
It won't completely eliminate the ladder, but can minimize the climbing
Yeah... I hear ya on the ladder thing. Harder if your other half refuses to stand at the bottom and make sure the ladder is steady... because while you're tying not to chuck black gutter-goo onto her head, sometimes you fail...
I wonder if you can rent a bucket truck for a few hours... (possibly, although I did find a place that rents the lift shown below)
Or... one of these doesn't seem like a bad idea... especially if you're often tasked with cleaning out relatives' gutters:
California = no rain = no gutter = nothing useful to contribute.
Having said that, I was scheduled to provide engineering statistics training to fifteen engineers in Minnetonka, MN several years ago.
I laid out fifteen manuals before the session but only fourteen engineers showed up.
About an hour into the session, an Admin. walked into the room and quietly told me that one of my engineers (40 something year old with two youngish kids) fell off his roof while cleaning his gutters and died.
I used to put inflatable stuff on my roof for Christmas, Halloween, etc. but not after that.
I have seen those hose attachments which seems like they could be made out of a long (think clearly) piece of PVC. They are made to sort of pressure wash the leaves out. Worst case, you can flush all the leaves to one spot, for easier removal.
Or you could go the other way and make a shop vac attachment, which could be suck or blow:
Oh My!:
I use a clicky rotating head thing for my hose, found it at Ollies for like $5, it works well. 3 foot wand extends to like 8 feet, just has a high pressure directional head on it that rotates.
I recommend just buying metal, METAL, gutter guard and installing it. The plastic ones are E36 M3, UV kills them. Metal should outlast the gutters. Last I bought them, pre covid, metal was ~$2 a foot.
That is AMAZING! I need one to live in the gutter like a Roomba...
Hmmm, Shop-Vac attachment? I have a smaller one, though. I wonder if it has enough juice. We have a leaf blower/sucker, too. Hmmm....
Thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming.
We have a thick tree canopy, so no chance of getting a crane/bucket truck in there.
On our house the clog is usually just at the downspout. A proper poke and it flushes itself. If there is water in the gutter the purge is pretty efficient. When the gutters are dry I use a sailboat mast about 3 inches in diameter with a mandrel bent 180 degree exhaust tube taped on. Leaf blower stuck on the end flushes everything out, but wear a hat and goggles because you will get dirty. Luckily it only happens once a year in the spring when one tree flowers and the wind blows the crap.
Our old house had 4 total gutters, 3 of which were very easy to access. The fourth spanned the width of the second floor (35 ft?) and although I'm pretty nimble and able bodied truly scared me every time. Because of how our back deck was positioned, I had to extendo the ladder beyond the deck steps at a sketchy angle for one side, prop the ladder against the bottom of the deck railing for the middle and shimmy by the power lines that hit the other corner of the house.
What I did to limit my time up there was use the leaf blower. It made it 10x sketchier but it meant I was up on that ladder for a significantly shorter amount of time.
All gutters at the new house can be reached with a 6 ft. ladder.
Pay a handyman to install gutter guards, and have them clean the gutters while they're at it.
Mine have been on the house for 13 years or so and are doing great.
In reply to Duke :
We replaced the gutters when we did the roof. The roof/gutter company would not install gutter guards because our tree canopy is so thick and leaves would quickly pile up on them. I even asked the dude who actually installed the gutters, and he said the same thing: Tree canopy is too thick.
So, yay, us.
Huh. Must be pretty thick. I have trees all around my house, including a sycamore that drops the mother of all leaves, plus a bunch of other crap.
Sorry, beyond that, I got nuthin.
I can see how a screen type guard could get overloaded and clogged.
What about the style that more depends on surface tension? I suspect this type could be overloaded by too heavy of a rain though.
I tried to clean my high gutter the other day. I was able to get 2/3 if it a month ago when I borrowed the neighbors rental man lift. But the deck was in the way and I couldn't get all of it. I tried my aluminum extension ladder which was pretty sure was too short. Extended it one rung past maximum and it was bouncy as hell. Still couldn't reach the gutter. I do have an old fiberglass ladder that I have used before, bu that thing is HEAVY. I'm a lot weaker than I was last time I used it, and wouldn't dream of getting the wife to help.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I purchased foam that fills my gutters. Rain falls through the foam and is handled the usual way gutters work. However leaves sit on top of the foam and are blown off by wind.
aircooled said:I can see how a screen type guard could get overloaded and clogged.
What about the style that more depends on surface tension? I suspect this type could be overloaded by too heavy of a rain though.
Those systems rely on the Coanda Effect...
...which requires a very smooth surface so tree sap, bird droppings, etc. will interfere with the operating principle.
here's a picture of the gutters height. ( about 35' from the paving stones.
Replace it with the rain handler system and forget about it.
I have a house-cleaning wand for the pressure washer. It extends to something like 14'. It has two fittings for the end, one bends about 100 degrees so the pressure is diverted down for house washing (so it doesn't jet up under the siding) and the other one is about 160 degrees for gutters. 3600 psi makes really quick (and very messy) work of the gutters. You'll be soaked in rotting leaves and mud, but totally worth it.
Side note to this.
Unclogging a downspout with one of these.
Will shoot stuff all over the place including 50 plus feet in the air above the house. It did clear out the downspout and hilarity ensued as we did the rest of them (at a friend's house).
A side note is that the gutter strainers will be removed permanently and probably never seen again.
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