THOSE HARD-TO-REACH PLACES

Outside our family room is a covered patio. A few years ago, I replaced a deteriorating fiberglass roof with polycarb panels. The newer roofing panels are more durable than fiberglass and are clear, allowing more light to pass through than the previous panels allowed.



Our neighbor, however, has an enormous leaf-shedding tree that annually covers a large portion of our clear roof with leaves. The leaves get wet and do not blow away in the wind. This makes the covered patio and the family room darker than we prefer.

So, yesterday I climbed a ladder with a push broom and pulled from the roof as many leaves as I could reach. The problem is that the polycarb panels are 12 feet long. I could not reach that far. So, I swept what I could reach and decided to blow the remaining leaves off the roof with a leaf blower.

The leaf blower was powerful enough to move the remaining leaves, but it did not blow them off the roof. It simply blew them to the far edge of the roof, further from my reach than before.

The next step was to take my push broom, some duct tape, and the same 10-foot piece of PVC pipe that I used to hang Christmas lights, and extend the length of the broom handle.

It worked!

I could easily reach the leaves that were twelve feet away and pull them off the roof. But, halfway through the project, the broom broke. The threaded part of the handle broke off inside the broom head.

Now I'm heading to Lowe's to buy a new broom so I can finish the chore.

Beyond the blue-tarp-covered picnic table is the covered patio that allows light into the family room when the roofing panels are not covered with leaves.

Different views of the covered patio.

The polycarb roof is clearly seen from this angle.

The length of the broom handle has been extended two feet above the roof line with a PVC pipe.

When using duct tape to attach a PVC pipe to a broom handle, it is absolutely essential that the duct tape be yellow rather than gray.

The leaf blower successfully moved the leaves to the far end of the 12-foot roof, way beyond my reach.

The area marked in red shows where the leaves covered the roof prior to my broom and blower project.

For those hard-to-reach places, I highly recommend a push broom, a 10-foot length of PVC pipe, and yellow duct tape.