Rockingham County, New Hampshire
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Portsmouth, NH
Rain in Portsmouth adds up to about 49 inches in a normal year, with about 14 days that bring an inch or more. The wettest season is spring (March to May), with about 13.3 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 11.6. Off a 1,000-square-foot roof, that comes to about 30,600 gallons a year for the gutters to carry.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving PortsmouthPortsmouth: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00172602, 3 miBars to one scale; the longest is spring (March to May).
By heavy-rain days, Portsmouth falls 12th for heavy-rain days of the 60 places in New Hampshire on this site (13.5 a year). Its housing ranks near the middle of the 60 places in New Hampshire on this site (half built by 1958). By first frost it falls near the middle of the 60 places in New Hampshire on this site (October 8).
When to clean gutters in Portsmouth
The first fall frost comes around October 8 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around May 4 (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 Portsmouth rain
Gutters are sized for the worst few minutes of a storm, not for the year. In Portsmouth the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 6.73 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 56 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 Portsmouth
Half the homes in Portsmouth were built by 1958, 69% before 1980 (ACS 2020–2024). At that age a gutter has seen decades of leaves and storms, and the fascia it hangs from has too. 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.
52% of households own their home, and 40% of homes are detached houses, 9% townhouses. If an association maintains the exterior, the gutters may be its job rather than yours; check before calling.
Hiring in New Hampshire
Before hiring in Portsmouth, ask which New Hampshire license or registration the contractor holds and for a certificate of liability insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Portsmouth
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: