Scott County, Iowa
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Buffalo, IA
Rain in Buffalo adds up to about 39 inches in a normal year, with about 10 days that bring an inch or more. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 13.5 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 5.3. That is about 24,100 gallons a year off each 1,000 square feet of roof, every drop of it through a gutter and a downspout.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving BuffaloBuffalo: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00117391, 11 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
Counting days with an inch of rain or more, Buffalo sits 27th for heavy-rain days of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (10.1 a year). By the age of its homes it sits 38th oldest by median year built of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (half built by 1952). By its first fall frost it sits among the latest for the first fall frost of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (October 22).
When to clean gutters in Buffalo
The first fall frost comes around October 22 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around April 19 (median dates, NOAA normals). Booking the fall cleaning after the first frost, once the trees over the roof are bare, catches the season’s drop in one visit; the spring cleaning comes after the pollen and catkins are down.
When to clean gutters explains how the trees over a roof change the schedule.
Gutter and downspout size for Buffalo rain
The short, hard downpour is what a gutter is sized for. In Buffalo the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 7.54 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 8). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 950 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 1,910, by the rule in the Copper Development Association’s design handbook. Try your own roof in the gutter and downspout calculator, which starts from this figure.
Buffalo averages about 36 inches of snow a year (NOAA normals). Snow on a roof brings ice dams: heat escaping from the house melts the snow, and the water refreezes at the cold eave, in the gutter and over it. University of Minnesota Extension puts the cause in the attic, not in the gutter, so a gutter that fills with ice is a symptom; hangers spaced to carry ice and a sound fascia are what the gutter itself needs.
The houses in Buffalo
Half the homes in Buffalo were built by 1952, 88% before 1980 (ACS 2020–2024). Houses that age have often had their gutters replaced once already; if not, the original runs and the boards behind them deserve a close look. On a house built before 1978, replacing more than 20 square feet of painted fascia or trim falls under the EPA’s lead-safe rule, so ask whether the crew is certified.
78% of households own their home, and 94% of homes are detached houses. In a townhouse or HOA community, check who owns the gutters and what colors are allowed before booking.
Hiring in Iowa
Ask any contractor working in Buffalo what Iowa requires of them for gutter work, and to show proof of insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Buffalo
With half the homes built by 1952, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: