Wayne County, Michigan
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Detroit, MI
Rain in Detroit adds up to about 30 inches in a normal year, with about 5 days that bring an inch or more. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 9.4 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 4.6. Off a 1,000-square-foot roof, that comes to about 18,500 gallons a year for the gutters to carry.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving DetroitDetroit: rain and roofs
NOAA station USW00014822, 5 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
Counting days with an inch of rain or more, Detroit sits among the fewest heavy-rain days of the 405 places in Michigan on this site (4.8 a year). By house age it falls 20th oldest by median year built of the 406 places in Michigan on this site (half built by 1947). By first frost it falls among the latest for the first fall frost of the 406 places in Michigan on this site (October 25).
When to clean gutters in Detroit
The first fall frost comes around October 25 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around April 27 (median dates, NOAA normals). A fall cleaning set for the weeks after that frost, when the branches over the house are bare, gets the year’s leaves in one trip; a spring visit follows once the pollen and catkins have come down.
When to clean gutters explains how the trees over a roof change the schedule.
Gutter and downspout size for Detroit rain
The short, hard downpour is what a gutter is sized for. In Detroit the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 6.35 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 8). 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 2,270, 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.
Detroit averages about 31 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 Detroit
Half the homes in Detroit were built by 1947, 90% 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.
50% of households own their home, and 65% of homes are detached houses, 7% townhouses. If an association maintains the exterior, the gutters may be its job rather than yours; check before calling.
Hiring in Michigan
Licensing for gutter work differs from state to state; ask a contractor in Detroit which license or registration they hold in Michigan, and for proof of liability insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Detroit
With half the homes built by 1947, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: