Lyon County, Minnesota
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Cottonwood, MN
Cottonwood gets about 29 inches of rain in a normal year, and on about 7 days a year an inch or more falls in a single day. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 11.5 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 2.8. Every 1,000 square feet of roof sheds about 17,900 gallons a year, and all of it goes through the gutters.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving CottonwoodCottonwood: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00215204, 11 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
For days with an inch of rain or more, Cottonwood ranks near the middle of the 334 places in Minnesota on this site (6.9 a year). Its housing ranks near the middle of the 335 places in Minnesota on this site (half built by 1971). The first frost here ranks near the middle of the 336 places in Minnesota on this site (October 3).
When to clean gutters in Cottonwood
The first fall frost comes around October 3 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around May 5 (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 Cottonwood rain
Gutters are sized for the worst few minutes of a storm, not for the year. In Cottonwood the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 7.38 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 8). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 980 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 1,950, 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.
Cottonwood averages about 44 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 Cottonwood
Half the homes in Cottonwood were built by 1971, 70% 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. 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.
79% of households own their home, and 78% 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 Minnesota
Before hiring in Cottonwood, ask which Minnesota license or registration the contractor holds and for a certificate of liability insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Cottonwood
With half the homes built by 1971, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: