Latah County, Idaho
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Moscow, ID
Moscow gets about 28 inches of rain in a normal year, and on about 2 days a year an inch or more falls in a single day. The wettest season is winter (December to February), with about 9.4 inches; the driest is summer (June to August), with 3.1. Every 1,000 square feet of roof sheds about 17,200 gallons a year, and all of it goes through the gutters.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving MoscowMoscow: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00106152, 2 miBars to one scale; the longest is winter (December to February).
For days with an inch of rain or more, Moscow ranks 11th for heavy-rain days of the 90 places in Idaho on this site (2.3 a year). By the age of its homes it sits near the middle of the 90 places in Idaho on this site (half built by 1980). The first frost here ranks near the middle of the 90 places in Idaho on this site (October 2).
When to clean gutters in Moscow
The first fall frost comes around October 2 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around April 29 (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 Moscow rain
What overwhelms a gutter is a burst, not a season. In Moscow the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 3.64 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 12). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 1,980 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 3,960, 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.
Moscow averages about 51 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 Moscow
Half the homes in Moscow were built by 1980, 50% 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.
42% of households own their home, and 43% of homes are detached houses, 5% townhouses. Where an HOA governs the exterior, its rules on gutter color and style apply before any order is placed.
Hiring in Idaho
Ask any contractor working in Moscow what Idaho requires of them for gutter work, and to show proof of insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Moscow
With half the homes built by 1980, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: