Gutter cleaning Redwood City

Clearing Redwood City gutters beneath its 18,000 street trees

Redwood City's Public Works crews look after about 18,000 street trees, and on many blocks those trees are what fills the gutters. The city will not take one out because it is messy; its answer is to put the trimmings in the green organics cart, so regular clearing is the fix. Before storms the city asks residents to keep leaves out of streets, gutters and catch basins, and in Redwood Shores that runoff is stored in the lagoon.

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  • Rules on this page checked against 11 public sources, October 2026
Redwood City's City Hall
Redwood City's City Hall. Photo: King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How gutter cleaning work goes in Redwood City

What the city and county say about gutters and roof water

  1. Leaves out of streets and catch basins

    Redwood City's winter storm page asks residents never to dump anything into a catch basin and to prevent storm drain blockages by keeping leaves and other debris out of streets, gutters and catch basins. The street gutter at the curb is part of that system, so leaves pulled from a roof belong in the compost cart, not swept toward the drain. Public Works takes reports of blocked storm drains and hands out sandbags at 1400 Broadway ahead of storms.

    City of Redwood City Public Works (opens in a new tab)

  2. Who prunes, and when a tree can go

    City staff maintain only city-owned trees; trees on private property are the owner's to maintain, and the city's Tree Preservation Ordinance protects private trees above a minimum size, which is why removing one takes a permit. A city street tree is removed only when it is dead, dying, structurally unsound, damaging property or blocking a permitted improvement. In most cases, the city says, messiness is not sufficient cause.

    City of Redwood City Public Works (opens in a new tab)

  3. The countywide rain barrel rebate

    Flows To Bay, the San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program, funds a rain barrel rebate that BAWSCA administers. City of Redwood City water customers qualify for the countywide rebate and a second one from the city as a member agency; Cal Water customers do not get the second. The barrel must connect to a rain gutter downspout or rain chain, sit on a solid, level base, keep walkways clear, send overflow away from buildings and neighbors, and be kept up for three years.

    Flows To Bay, San Mateo Countywide program (opens in a new tab)

State license for this work: C-43 Sheet Metal, C-39 Roofing, D-49 Tree Service. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (cslb.ca.gov).

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Get quotes for gutter cleaning work in Redwood City

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To send a request, call or text (415) 449-8213.

Free to request, and you agree the scope and price with the person you hire before work starts. In California, a job over $1,000 in labor and materials, or one that needs a building permit, must be done by a contractor licensed by the CSLB in the right class. Ask for the license number and check it at cslb.ca.gov.

The work

Leaves, carts and standing water: the Redwood City jobs

  • Gutters under a city street tree

    Most trees in the strip between the street and the sidewalk are city-owned, and where there is no strip, the city's tree may stand just behind the sidewalk. Public Works prunes them on its own schedule, working block by block and taking the most critical trees first, and a resident who wants it sooner can get a permit and have the tree pruned to the city's standards by an arborist. Until then the leaves keep coming, so a clean-out before the rains and another after the heaviest drop is the practical rhythm.

  • Filling the green compost cart

    Recology San Mateo County, Redwood City's hauler, takes leaves, grasses, tree trimmings and branches or brush up to 4 inches in diameter in the green compost cart, as long as the lid still closes. Large or long branches, stumps and palm fronds are refused. A big clean-out under a street tree can fill a cart on its own, so spread the leaves over a couple of collection weeks or have the crew haul the rest away.

  • Gutters that hold water

    A sagging run that holds water after a storm is a mosquito problem here, not just a drip. In May 2024 the San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District, announcing West Nile virus in a dead crow from Menlo Park, asked residents to clean rain gutters clogged with leaves and to empty standing water at least once a week, because mosquitoes can lay eggs in very small amounts of it. Re-pitching the section so water reaches the downspout is the fix.

Metal roof gutter running along the bottom of a slate roof, with a downspout outlet dropping into a round drainpipe
Metal roof gutter running along the bottom of a slate roof, with a downspout outlet dropping into a round drainpipe. Photo: Le plombier du désert, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The houses here

Pre-war bungalows, a lagoon suburb and the hills past the city line

Mount Carmel, roughly between Alameda de las Pulgas and El Camino Real and from Whipple to Jefferson Avenue, is largely pre-World War II housing, known for Tudor and Spanish Colonial bungalows, mostly with detached garages, set back on large lots from tree-canopied streets. For a gutter crew that often means two roofs on one lot and a canopy dropping leaves on both. Redwood Shores is the opposite: a peninsula ringed by levees because its ground sits below high tide, built around a lagoon that also stores the neighborhood's storm runoff. Emerald Lake Hills, up among oak-studded hills beside the city, is unincorporated county land, so Redwood City's tree programs stop at its edge.

Part by part

Where the leaves and the roof water go, part by part

  • Redwood Shores

    The lagoon at the center of Redwood Shores doubles as a storm water retention pond, storing surface runoff during high tides on San Francisco Bay. The city lowers the lagoon in winter to make room for runoff from the properties around it, and it treats algae and widgeon grass to keep the water clean, so leaves and roof grit rinsed into a drain here end up in water people boat and swim in.

  • Mount Carmel

    Tree-canopied streets, bungalows set back on large lots and detached garages at the rear make Mount Carmel the neighborhood where a clean-out most often covers two roofs. The street trees out front are usually the city's, so a crew can clear what falls but should leave the branches to Public Works or to an arborist working under the city's permit.

  • Emerald Lake Hills

    Emerald Lake Hills sits in oak-studded hills in unincorporated San Mateo County, outside the city's street-tree program. Where its oaks are coast live oaks, gutters fill twice a year: the species is evergreen but drops most of its old leaves in spring, after the autumn clean-out has already been done.

Before you hire

Questions for a Redwood City gutter cleaner

  • If a city street tree overhangs the roof, ask them to leave its branches alone unless you hold the city's pruning permit.
  • Ask that leaves go into your green compost cart with the lid closing, and that branches thicker than 4 inches leave with them.
  • In Redwood Shores, ask that downspout flushings be caught and bagged, since the storm drains there feed the lagoon.
  • On a Mount Carmel lot, confirm whether the detached garage's gutters are included in the quote.
  • Ask them to check for sections still holding water after the clean-out, the mosquito risk the county district flags.

Questions

Redwood City gutter questions with local answers

The city tree out front keeps filling our gutters. Will Redwood City remove it?

Probably not. The city removes street trees that are dead, dying, structurally unsound, damaging property or blocking a permitted improvement, and it says that in most cases messiness is not sufficient cause. Its advice is to put the trimmings in the green organics cart. If the tree needs pruning sooner than the city's cycle, you can get a permit and have an arborist prune it to the city's standards.

Who is responsible for pruning the tree that hangs over our roof?

It depends on where the trunk stands. Trees in the strip between the street and the sidewalk, or just behind the sidewalk where there is no strip, are usually city-owned and pruned by Public Works; the city will visit to confirm ownership. Trees on private property are the owner's to maintain, and removing a private tree above the ordinance's minimum size needs a permit.

We live in Redwood Shores. Where does the water from our gutters go?

Into the lagoon. Redwood Shores is ringed by levees because the ground is lower than high tide, and the lagoon serves as a storm water retention pond, storing runoff from the surrounding properties during high tides on the Bay. The city keeps the water level lower in winter for that reason, so keeping leaves and grit out of the drains keeps them out of the lagoon.

Can we get a rebate for a rain barrel on our downspout?

Likely. San Mateo County's rebate, funded by Flows To Bay and run by BAWSCA, is open to residents installing a new barrel of 50 gallons or more in the county, up to two per single-family account. Redwood City water customers also get the city's agency rebate, while Cal Water customers do not. The barrel must be fed by a downspout or rain chain, and copper materials, downspouts included, are not allowed.

Do clogged gutters really breed mosquitoes in San Mateo County?

They can. When West Nile virus turned up in a dead crow from Menlo Park in May 2024, the county's Mosquito and Vector Control District asked residents to clean rain gutters clogged with leaves and to dump standing water at least once a week. Mosquitoes can lay eggs in very small amounts of standing water, and a gutter that does not drain is one of the easiest places to miss.

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

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