Essex County, Massachusetts
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Gloucester, MA
Gloucester gets about 48 inches of rain in a normal year, and on about 12 days a year an inch or more falls in a single day. The wettest season is fall (September to November), with about 12.8 inches; the driest is summer (June to August), with 10.8. That is about 29,800 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 GloucesterGloucester: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00190593, 8 miBars to one scale; the longest is fall (September to November).
Counting days with an inch of rain or more, Gloucester sits near the middle of the 216 places in Massachusetts on this site (12.2 a year). By the age of its homes it sits 42nd oldest by median year built of the 217 places in Massachusetts on this site (half built by 1944). By its first fall frost it sits near the middle of the 216 places in Massachusetts on this site (October 12).
When to clean gutters in Gloucester
The first fall frost comes around October 12 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around May 4 (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 Gloucester rain
What overwhelms a gutter is a burst, not a season. In Gloucester the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 6.72 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 2,140, 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.
With about 51 inches of snow in a normal year here (NOAA normals), gutters carry ice as well as water. Ice dams start with heat from the house melting roof snow that refreezes at the edge (University of Minnesota Extension); the fix for the dam is in the attic, and the gutter’s part is to be hung strongly enough to take the weight.
The houses in Gloucester
Half the homes in Gloucester were built by 1944, 75% before 1980 (ACS 2020–2024). In a neighborhood that age, many houses are on their second set of gutters or due for one, and the fascia board behind them is worth checking at the same visit. 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.
63% of households own their home, and 51% of homes are detached houses, 5% townhouses. In a townhouse or HOA community, check who owns the gutters and what colors are allowed before booking.
Hiring in Massachusetts
Ask any contractor working in Gloucester what Massachusetts requires of them for gutter work, and to show proof of insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Gloucester
With half the homes built by 1944, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: