Short answer: the black stripes on the outside of your gutters are not dirt and they do not wash off with a normal house wash. They need a dedicated brightening treatment. Clearing plus brightening on one visit runs $275–$550.
Gutter work gets sold as one service and it is genuinely two.
Clearing is the functional one — getting oak leaves, pine straw, shingle grit and the occasional tennis ball out of the trough so water actually reaches the downspout. In Jacksonville, with the pine and live oak cover we have, this needs doing roughly twice a year.
Brightening is the cosmetic one, and it is the one almost nobody understands. Those dark vertical streaks running down the outside face of white aluminium gutters have a name in the trade: tiger stripes. Homeowners look at them, conclude the gutters are stained beyond saving, and start pricing replacements. They are almost never beyond saving.
Not sure what your property needs?
Send photos. We will tell you what we would do and roughly what it costs — even if the answer is that it can wait.
What the black stripes actually are
They are an electrostatic bond, which is why ordinary washing slides straight past them.
Rainwater running off the roof carries shingle grit, roof tar, pollen and airborne carbon. As it flows over the gutter's leading edge, surface tension pulls a thin film onto the outer face. The water evaporates; the contaminants stay, and they bond chemically to the oxidised aluminium underneath. Every rainfall adds another layer, always in the same vertical pattern.
Because it is a bonded oxide stain rather than surface dirt, the house-wash solution that lifts algae off your siding does essentially nothing to it. Brightening uses a separate acidic or alkaline gel, applied to the face, agitated by hand and rinsed. It is hand work, which is why it is priced per linear foot rather than lumped into the house wash.
So do I need new gutters or not?
Send a close-up and we will tell you honestly. In the large majority of cases the aluminium underneath is perfectly sound and brightening takes it back to near-original white.
Where it genuinely will not come back is when oxidation has gone deep enough to pit the surface — usually on gutters over twenty years old that have never been touched, or on coastal runs at the Beaches where salt has been working on them. In that situation we will say so rather than charging you for a treatment that will disappoint.
Clearing the inside
Less glamorous, more important. A blocked gutter does not just overflow — it holds standing water against the fascia board, and in this climate that means rot, then carpenter ants, then a repair that costs many times what the cleaning would have.
Jacksonville has a specific version of this problem: pine straw. Unlike leaves, pine needles knit together into a dense mat that holds water like a sponge and will not flush through a downspout. If you have pines overhead, twice a year is the minimum.
| What is overhead | How often to clear | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pine | Every 4–6 months | Needles mat together and block downspouts entirely |
| Live oak | Every 6 months | Constant small-leaf drop, plus catkins in spring |
| Mixed hardwood | Twice a year | Heaviest load in autumn |
| Nothing overhead | Once a year | Shingle grit and windblown debris still accumulate |
| After a hurricane or storm | Immediately | Debris load can block a full run in one event |
We bag the debris and take it with us, flush each downspout to confirm flow, and tell you about anything we notice up there — loose spikes, separated seams, sagging runs, or a fascia board that has started to soften.
What gutter cleaning costs
Typical Jacksonville range
$125–$400
Two different jobs sold together: clearing debris from inside, and removing the black "tiger stripes" from the outside face.
| Job size | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Debris clear-out, single story (150 linear ft) | $125–$200 |
| Debris clear-out, two story | $175–$300 |
| Exterior brightening (stripe removal), per linear ft | $1.5–$3 |
| Clear-out + brightening bundled | $275–$550 |
| What changes the price | Effect |
|---|---|
| Heavy oak or pine debris load | +$50 to $125 |
| Gutter guards to remove and refit | +$75 to $175 |
| Added to a house wash | −$40 to $75 |
Ranges reflect typical Jacksonville-area jobs in 2026. They are planning estimates, not quotes — the real number depends on access, buildup severity, and what the surface is actually made of. See how Jacksonville pricing works across every service →
Gutter guards, honestly
We do not sell them, which means we have no reason to oversell them.
Good guards genuinely reduce how often gutters need clearing. They do not eliminate it. Fine debris — pine needle fragments, shingle grit, oak catkins, roof granules — still works through most designs and settles into a sludge at the bottom of the trough, and because a guard is in the way, clearing it out afterwards takes longer and costs more.
If you already have them, tell us. Removing and refitting adds $75 to $175 depending on the type. Some clip off in seconds; some are screwed down under the shingle course and are a genuinely awkward job.
Should I clean the gutters before or after the roof?
After. Roof cleaning loosens years of accumulated grit, dead algae and debris, and a good proportion of it ends up in the gutters. Clearing them first just means doing it twice.
If you are booking both, we do the roof, let it rinse through, then clear and brighten the gutters as the final step. See roof cleaning.
What gutter cleaning will not fix
- Sagging or pulling away. That is a fastener problem. We will point out where the spikes or hangers have failed.
- Leaking seams. Sealant fails over time; cleaning does not reseal it.
- Undersized gutters. If a 5-inch run overflows in every heavy storm, it is overwhelmed rather than blocked.
- Rotten fascia. Cleaning reveals it. Repairing it is carpentry.
- Deep pitting. Where oxidation has eaten into the aluminium, brightening improves it without restoring it.
Where pine and oak make this a twice-a-year job
Answers
Gutter cleaning questions
How often should gutters be cleaned in Jacksonville?
What are the black stripes on the outside of my gutters?
Do I need to replace stained gutters?
Is gutter brightening included in a house wash?
Do you clean the downspouts too?
What do you do with the debris?
Related
What people usually book alongside this
Get a real number, not a range
Send a few wide shots plus close-ups of the worst areas and we will price it properly.
Or email hello@jaxpropressurewash.com
What helps us quote fast
- One wide shot of each side that needs cleaning
- Close-ups of the worst staining
- Your address, so we can check the property size
- Roughly when it was last cleaned