Recent knee surgery, and paranoia about falling off my roof or a ladder, caused my retirement from the annual rain gutter cleaning chore. (I’m not sorry — that was one of the do-it-yourself jobs I usually put off as long as possible.)

But cleaning and maintaining the rain gutters on your house are a necessity, even in the High Desert, with an annual precipitation of about 11 inches. And the job needs to be done sometime, whether you hire someone or do it yourself.

“The typical homeowner looks up at the gutters and sees it’s a long way up there,” said David Gardner, owner of Big Mountain Gutters in Bend. “The people with tall houses, especially, decide they don’t want to attempt the job and call us.”

During a rainstorm, gutters route runoff from a very large surface — the roof — to where it can drain away from the house. This protects siding, windows, doors and foundations from water damage and helps prevent flooding in basements. To work well, gutters and downspouts must be clear of debris. If they aren’t, outlets will dam up, and water will fill the gutters, back up, overflow and eventually pull gutters loose from their mountings.

Water that pools in the troughs will rot wood gutters and rust sheet metal ones. In the fall and winter, accumulated debris can cause ice dams, when water can’t flow through to the downspout. In the spring, gutters can become clogged as deciduous trees litter roofs with seed pods, flower petals, buds and small leaves felled by spring storms.

The frequency of gutter cleaning depends on your location, the proximity of the roof to trees, and how the house is situated on the lot, Gardner said.

“If your house is in the middle of a lot, and there aren’t any overhanging trees on the roof, you may be able to go two or three years without cleaning,” he said.

But even if falling leaves are not an issue, Gardner said, you’re not home free. Little rocks and runoff from the shingles add to the accumulation in the gutter, along with wind-blown material.

“This area can get dusty and windy, and that dust settles on the roof, and gets washed into the gutter,” he said. “Eventually, a layer of dirt builds up. We’ve seen 2 to 3 inches of mud and debris in a rain gutter, and there weren’t any trees around.”

The tools you need to clean the gutter are simple: a ladder, gloves, eye protection, a trowel or small scoop and time. The skill level to do the job is well within the reach of anyone — all you do is scoop out the debris and trash or compost it. Cleaning gutters on a one-story home is easy enough for most home- owners; taller homes may require a taller ladder or braver soul.

But before you tackle the job yourself, apply some common sense. Cleaning gutters can be dangerous. If you don’t have a ladder of the right length and design, you can’t safely clean your gutters. Ladders can slip when rested upon a gutter, or you might reach too far sideways to grab leaves from a gutter. If you clean gutters while standing on a roof, you can lose your balance or slide off and fall.

The professionals use a “stand-off” on the top of their ladders, Gardner said, which is a U-shaped bracket that rests the ladder on the roof and keeps it from sliding on the gutter. Before working on roofs, the pros attach ropes and wear safety harnesses.

It will cost between $100 and $200 to get your roof and gutters professionally cleaned, Gardner said, and this includes a complete roof cleaning, checking all the downspouts, repair of any gutter damage, cleaning out the troughs, and removing all the debris.

“People don’t bat an eye at what it costs,” he said. “They look at the job and see how far they could fall, and they don’t want to get hurt.”