Tompkins County, New York
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in East Ithaca, NY
Rain in East Ithaca adds up to about 38 inches in a normal year, with about 7 days that bring an inch or more. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 11.7 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 6.8. Off a 1,000-square-foot roof, that comes to about 23,700 gallons a year for the gutters to carry.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving East IthacaEast Ithaca: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00304174, 2 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
By heavy-rain days, East Ithaca falls among the fewest heavy-rain days of the 817 places in New York on this site (6.6 a year). By the age of its homes it sits among the newest by median year built of the 810 places in New York on this site (half built by 1978). By first frost it falls 30th earliest for the first fall frost of the 817 places in New York on this site (October 3).
When to clean gutters in East Ithaca
The first fall frost comes around October 3 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around May 11 (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 East Ithaca rain
The short, hard downpour is what a gutter is sized for. In East Ithaca the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 6.71 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 10). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 1,070 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 2,150, 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.
East Ithaca averages about 63 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 East Ithaca
Half the homes in East Ithaca were built by 1978, 55% 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.
55% of households own their home, and 38% of homes are detached houses, 13% townhouses. If an association maintains the exterior, the gutters may be its job rather than yours; check before calling.
Hiring in New York
Licensing for gutter work differs from state to state; ask a contractor in East Ithaca which license or registration they hold in New York, and for proof of liability insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in East Ithaca
With half the homes built by 1978, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: