Lake County, Illinois
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Highwood, IL
Rain in Highwood adds up to about 40 inches in a normal year, with about 8 days that bring an inch or more. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 12.2 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 6.4. Off a 1,000-square-foot roof, that comes to about 24,500 gallons a year for the gutters to carry.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving HighwoodHighwood: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00111497, 5 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
By heavy-rain days, Highwood falls among the fewest heavy-rain days of the 695 places in Illinois on this site (8.3 a year). By the age of its homes it sits 154th oldest by median year built of the 695 places in Illinois on this site (half built by 1958). By first frost it falls near the middle of the 695 places in Illinois on this site (October 21).
When to clean gutters in Highwood
The first fall frost comes around October 21 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around April 26 (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 Highwood rain
The short, hard downpour is what a gutter is sized for. In Highwood the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 7.14 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 2). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 1,010 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 2,020, 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.
Highwood averages about 34 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 Highwood
Half the homes in Highwood were built by 1958, 68% 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.
49% of households own their home, and 44% of homes are detached houses, 5% townhouses. If an association maintains the exterior, the gutters may be its job rather than yours; check before calling.
Hiring in Illinois
Licensing for gutter work differs from state to state; ask a contractor in Highwood which license or registration they hold in Illinois, and for proof of liability insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Highwood
With half the homes built by 1958, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: