Eavestrough Cleaning Pricing Calculator (Canada)

Price an eavestrough cleaning visit in CAD from your own costs — linear feet, storeys and ladder access, the GST/HST rate for your province, and the $30,000 small-supplier line.

Quote this per visit

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One clean vs the spring-and-fall plan — as you would quote them

Plan	Per visit	Visits a year	Per year

Labour: —
Travel: —
Disposal: —
Overhead: —
Margin: —
Per visit (ex tax): —
GST/HST: —
Per visit (with tax): —

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How this is calculated

The price is built from your own costs, before tax, then margin is applied on price — the trade convention. GST/HST goes on afterwards, because the tax is never part of your margin.

labour   = crew × (rate / 60) × minutes
travel   = crew × (rate / 60) × travelMinutes
subtotal = labour + travel + disposal
overhead = subtotal × overheadPct
costBase = subtotal + overhead
base     = costBase / (1 − targetMargin)        ← ex tax
perVisit = max(base × (1 − planDiscount), minimum)
tax      = perVisit × your province's rate      ← 5% to 15%
quote    = perVisit + tax

Suggested minutes. A starting point, not a benchmark: a single-storey clear run is modelled at 130 linear feet an hour for one worker, slowed for height (two storeys ×0.7, three ×0.5), awkward or difficult ladder access, packed debris and guard removal, plus 15 minutes of setup and 5 minutes a downspout. Every one of those is a guess about time, never about price, and the field is yours to overwrite.

The tax rate is not one number. The federal rate is 5%; the participating provinces add their prescribed provincial part on top — 8% in Ontario, 9% in Nova Scotia, 10% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec charge 5% GST here and run a separate provincial tax of their own, which this tool does not compute.

Annualizing. One clean is one visit. The spring-and-fall plan is two, and your plan discount applies to both.

Eavestrough is what the trough is called almost everywhere in Canada; gutter is understood, and both words describe the same job — clearing the trough and the downspouts so meltwater and autumn rain leave the roof instead of sitting in it. What changes north of the border is not the vocabulary. It is the tax line, the invoice, and the fact that the season has two ends.

Everything about money on this page is your own number. The calculator publishes no average cost, no per-foot band and no going rate, because no Canadian body measures one. It publishes the arithmetic — your costs, your overhead, your margin — and the legislated figures underneath it, each pinned to the statute or regulation it comes from.

The tax line is not one number

The federal rate is 5%. In a participating province the invoice carries that plus the province’s prescribed provincial part, as a single harmonized rate: Ontario 13%, Nova Scotia 14%, and New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island 15%. Nova Scotia is the one worth double-checking if you carry an older price list — its provincial part came down to 9% in 2025, so a Halifax invoice that still says 15% is wrong.

Alberta, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut charge the 5% GST alone. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec also charge 5% federally, but each runs a separate provincial tax — PST, RST or QST — with its own registration and its own answer to whether a service like this is caught. The calculator flags that when you pick one of the four rather than inventing a combined rate for you; ask your provincial authority before you quote there.

Two legitimate prices for the same job

While your taxable revenue over the four preceding calendar quarters does not exceed $30,000 you are a small supplier, and you charge no GST/HST at all. That threshold means a great many solo eavestrough operators are legitimately not registered, and the same 150-foot bungalow reaches the customer at two different prices depending on which side of it you sit. Untick the box to see both. Note which side of the line the minimum charge sits on: the calculator applies it to the ex-tax figure, so what you take home does not drift with your tax status.

Price the height, not the footage

A per-foot rate is a summary of a job, never an estimate of one. Two houses with identical 150-foot runs are different jobs when one is a bungalow with clear ground on all four sides and the other is a two-storey with a deck, a garden bed under the back run and hydro coming in over the driveway. The model here prices the time — a production rate in linear feet an hour, slowed for storeys, ladder access, packed debris and guards that have to come off and go back on, plus setup and a few minutes for each downspout — and then reports the per-foot figure afterwards, as a number to compare jobs with rather than to quote from.

That is also why the loaded hourly rate field matters more than anything else on this page. If you have never built one, do it in the service hourly rate calculator, and work out what your wages actually cost once WSIB or your provincial WCB, holiday pay and unbillable hours are in with the labour burden rate calculator. Working at height is regulated provincially and this page prices the work rather than instructing you how to do it — your OHS authority, not a calculator, is the place to settle fall protection and training.

The season has two ends, and one deadline

Spring work clears what winter left: grit off the shingles, seed pods, the sludge that freeze-thaw compacts into the low end of a run. Autumn work has an actual deadline, because a trough still full when the first hard freeze arrives stops draining and starts holding ice. That is the visit customers leave too late and the one you should be selling in September, alongside the leaf cleanup you are already scheduling — the routes overlap almost perfectly, and the fall leaf cleanup pricing guide covers how to stage that work across the season. If your winter is booked with plowing, the Canadian snow removal pricing calculator prices the other half of the year in CAD, per push or per centimetre-banded event.

Where to go next

Turn the accepted number into something sendable with the quote generator, and invoice it with the registration number and the description the regulations ask for using the invoice template generator. If you also wash the house, the deck or the drive on the same visit, price the multi-surface job in the pressure washing estimate calculator and scope it in writing with the pressure washing contract template.

Fieldwynn — the field-service software this site is built by — has not launched yet. There is no signup wall here and no trial to start: the calculator is free, it runs entirely in your browser, and nothing you type leaves the page.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I charge to clean eavestroughs in Canada?

This page will not hand you a per-foot rate, because nobody measures one. There is no Canadian government or statistical series for eavestrough cleaning prices, and a number lifted off a competitor’s site is somebody else’s truck, somebody else’s insurance and somebody else’s labour cost wearing your name. Build it instead: your loaded crew rate, the minutes the ladder work actually takes at that height, the drive, your overhead and the margin you need. The calculator turns those into a per-visit price, a per-linear-foot rate and a yearly figure — then sanity-check it against your own accepted quotes, which is the one benchmark that is genuinely about your business.

Do I charge GST or HST on eavestrough cleaning?

Both words describe the same tax; which one appears on your invoice depends on where the work happens. The federal rate is 5% under s. 165(1) of the Excise Tax Act, and a participating province adds its prescribed provincial part on top: Ontario 8% (13% HST), Nova Scotia 9% (14% — it dropped from 15% in 2025), and New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island 10% each (15%). Alberta and the three territories are 5% GST. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec are also 5% GST federally, but each runs a separate provincial tax with its own registration and its own rules about which services it touches — this tool computes the GST/HST line only and tells you when you are in one of those four.

What if I make less than $30,000 a year?

Then you are almost certainly a small supplier and you charge no GST/HST at all. Section 148 of the Excise Tax Act keeps small-supplier status while the consideration for your taxable supplies over the four immediately preceding calendar quarters “does not exceed the total of $30,000”. Cross it and you stop being one. Untick the registration box in the calculator to see the same job as an unregistered operator quotes it — the price of your work does not change, only the tax on top of it. Registering voluntarily below the threshold is a real choice too, because it lets you claim input tax credits on the ladders, the truck and the fuel.

What has to be on the invoice?

More than most operators put there, and it steps up twice. Under the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations, a document under $100 needs your name, the date and the total. At $100 it must also carry your GST/HST registration number and the tax. At $500 — which most two-storey eavestrough jobs clear — it must additionally show the customer’s name, the terms of payment and a description of the work. Those are the details a property manager needs in order to claim the input tax credit, so an invoice that omits them gets sent back. The calculator names which step your quote lands on; the invoice template generator gives you somewhere to put them.

Why does the second storey cost so much more than twice the first?

Because the price follows the ladder, not the eavestrough. A single-storey run is a short ladder, a quick reset and a bucket. Two storeys means an extension ladder, standoff stabilizers, more setting-up per foot cleared, more time picking a footing on soft ground or a deck, and a materially higher risk you are carrying insurance and workers’ compensation coverage for. The calculator’s suggested minutes slow the production rate to 0.7 at two storeys and 0.5 at three — a guess about time, not price, and one you should overwrite the moment you have timed a couple of your own jobs.

Should I sell one clean or a spring-and-fall plan?

Most Canadian eavestrough work is genuinely twice-yearly: once after the melt clears the winter grit and shingle debris, once after leaf drop but before freeze-up, when water sitting in a blocked trough starts to become an ice problem rather than a drainage one. Booking both at once is worth a discount because it halves your selling cost and locks the autumn slot in a queue that fills fast. That discount is your number, not one this page asserts — enter it and the calculator shows both plans side by side, per visit and per year.

Sources

Excise Tax Act, s. 165(1) — GST "calculated at the rate of 5%"; s. 165(2) adds "the tax rate for that province" in a participating province. Department of Justice Canada (consolidated federal law, current to 2026-06-21). Retrieved Aug 24, 2026.
Excise Tax Act, s. 148 — small supplier while consideration over the four preceding calendar quarters "does not exceed the total of $30,000". Department of Justice Canada (consolidated federal law, current to 2026-06-21). Retrieved Aug 24, 2026.
New Harmonized Value-added Tax System Regulations s. 33.3 — "the prescribed rate for Prince Edward Island is 10%"; ss. 33.4 and 33.5 set New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador at 10%. Department of Justice Canada (SOR/2010-117, current to 2026-06-21). Retrieved Aug 24, 2026.
New Harmonized Value-added Tax System Regulations s. 33.6 — "the prescribed rate for Nova Scotia is 9%" (as amended by SOR/2025-77), i.e. 14% HST rather than 15%. Department of Justice Canada (SOR/2010-117, last amended 2025-04-01). Retrieved Aug 24, 2026.
Excise Tax Act, Schedule VIII (Participating Provinces and Applicable Tax Rates) — Ontario 8%, the provincial part behind the 13% HST. Department of Justice Canada (official XML consolidation, current to 2026-06-21). Retrieved Aug 24, 2026.
Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations, s. 3 — supporting documentation must show the supplier's registration number at $100 or more, and the recipient's name, the terms of payment and a description of each supply at $500 or more. Department of Justice Canada (SOR/91-45, as amended by 2024, c. 15, s. 142). Retrieved Aug 24, 2026.

How we choose and check our formulas