Ouray County, Colorado
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Ouray, CO
Rain in Ouray adds up to about 24 inches in a normal year, with about 1 days that bring an inch or more. The wettest season is spring (March to May), with about 6.8 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 5.0. Every 1,000 square feet of roof sheds about 14,900 gallons a year, and all of it goes through the gutters.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving OurayOuray: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00056205, 0 miBars to one scale; the longest is spring (March to May).
For days with an inch of rain or more, Ouray ranks among the fewest heavy-rain days of the 182 places in Colorado on this site (1.0 a year). By house age it falls 43rd oldest by median year built of the 181 places in Colorado on this site (half built by 1978). By its first fall frost it sits near the middle of the 182 places in Colorado on this site (October 4).
When to clean gutters in Ouray
The first fall frost comes around October 4 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around May 18 (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 Ouray rain
What overwhelms a gutter is a burst, not a season. In Ouray the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 2.92 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 8). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 2,470 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 4,930, 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.
Ouray averages about 173 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 Ouray
Half the homes in Ouray were built by 1978, 54% 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.
71% of households own their home, and 54% of homes are detached houses, 3% townhouses. In a townhouse or HOA community, check who owns the gutters and what colors are allowed before booking.
Hiring in Colorado
Ask any contractor working in Ouray what Colorado requires of them for gutter work, and to show proof of insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Ouray
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: