Portsmouth city, Virginia
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Portsmouth, VA
Rain in Portsmouth adds up to about 53 inches in a normal year, with about 15 days that bring an inch or more. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 17.1 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 10.3. That is about 33,100 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 PortsmouthPortsmouth: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00446147, 7 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
Counting days with an inch of rain or more, Portsmouth sits 8th for heavy-rain days of the 375 places in Virginia on this site (15.1 a year). By house age it falls 48th oldest by median year built of the 373 places in Virginia on this site (half built by 1966). By its first fall frost it sits among the latest for the first fall frost of the 375 places in Virginia on this site (November 16).
When to clean gutters in Portsmouth
The first fall frost comes around November 16 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around March 23 (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 Portsmouth rain
What overwhelms a gutter is a burst, not a season. In Portsmouth the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 7.75 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 2). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 930 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 1,860, 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.
The houses in Portsmouth
Half the homes in Portsmouth were built by 1966, 71% 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.
57% of households own their home, and 61% of homes are detached houses, 9% townhouses. In a townhouse or HOA community, check who owns the gutters and what colors are allowed before booking.
Hiring in Virginia
Virginia requires a Board for Contractors license for any contract over $1,000; gutter work on a home falls under the home improvement specialty (HIC) or the residential building classification. Ask for the license number and class, and look it up before signing.
Source: Code of Virginia § 54.1-1100. Look-up: Virginia DPOR, license lookup.
Gutter work in Portsmouth
With half the homes built by 1966, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: