Rosebud County, Montana
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Colstrip, MT
Colstrip gets about 16 inches of rain in a normal year, and on about 2 days a year an inch or more falls in a single day. The wettest season is spring (March to May), with about 6.0 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 1.9. Every 1,000 square feet of roof sheds about 10,200 gallons a year, and all of it goes through the gutters.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving ColstripColstrip: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00241905, 0 miBars to one scale; the longest is spring (March to May).
For days with an inch of rain or more, Colstrip ranks 2nd for heavy-rain days of the 25 places in Montana on this site (2.3 a year). Its housing ranks near the middle of the 25 places in Montana on this site (half built by 1983). The first frost here ranks among the latest for the first fall frost of the 25 places in Montana on this site (September 30).
When to clean gutters in Colstrip
The first fall frost comes around September 30 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around May 15 (median dates, NOAA normals). Plan the fall visit for after the frost, when the trees over the roof have finished dropping, and the spring visit for after the pollen and catkins.
When to clean gutters explains how the trees over a roof change the schedule.
Gutter and downspout size for Colstrip rain
Gutters are sized for the worst few minutes of a storm, not for the year. In Colstrip the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 6.40 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 12). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 1,130 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 2,250, 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.
Colstrip averages about 37 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 Colstrip
Half the homes in Colstrip were built by 1983, 36% before 1980 (ACS 2020–2024). At that age a gutter has seen decades of leaves and storms, and the fascia it hangs from has too.
81% of households own their home, and 58% of homes are detached houses, 2% townhouses. Where an HOA governs the exterior, its rules on gutter color and style apply before any order is placed.
Hiring in Montana
Before hiring in Colstrip, ask which Montana license or registration the contractor holds and for a certificate of liability insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Colstrip
With half the homes built by 1983, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: