Buena Vista County, Iowa
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Storm Lake, IA
Storm Lake gets about 32 inches of rain in a normal year, and on about 8 days a year an inch or more falls in a single day. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 13.2 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 3.1. That is about 20,000 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 Storm LakeStorm Lake: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00133108, 15 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
For days with an inch of rain or more, Storm Lake ranks among the fewest heavy-rain days of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (8.2 a year). By the age of its homes it sits near the middle of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (half built by 1968). By its first fall frost it sits near the middle of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (October 13).
When to clean gutters in Storm Lake
The first fall frost comes around October 13 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around April 25 (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 Storm Lake rain
What overwhelms a gutter is a burst, not a season. In Storm Lake the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 8.21 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 8). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 880 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 1,750, 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.
Storm Lake averages about 36 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 Storm Lake
Half the homes in Storm Lake were built by 1968, 66% 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.
64% of households own their home, and 62% of homes are detached houses, 4% townhouses. In a townhouse or HOA community, check who owns the gutters and what colors are allowed before booking.
Hiring in Iowa
Ask any contractor working in Storm Lake what Iowa requires of them for gutter work, and to show proof of insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Storm Lake
With half the homes built by 1968, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: