Benton County, Iowa
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Urbana, IA
A normal year in Urbana brings about 38 inches of rain; on roughly 10 of its days, an inch or more comes down at once. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 14.0 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 4.0. Off a 1,000-square-foot roof, that comes to about 23,500 gallons a year for the gutters to carry.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving UrbanaUrbana: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00138568, 7 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
By heavy-rain days, Urbana falls 64th for heavy-rain days of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (9.6 a year). By the age of its homes it sits among the newest by median year built of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (half built by 1994). The first frost here ranks 12th earliest for the first fall frost of the 290 places in Iowa on this site (October 3).
When to clean gutters in Urbana
The first fall frost comes around October 3 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around May 3 (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 Urbana rain
Gutters are sized for the worst few minutes of a storm, not for the year. In Urbana the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 7.76 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 8). 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.
Urbana averages about 34 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 Urbana
Half the homes in Urbana were built by 1994, 32% 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.
93% of households own their home, and 91% of homes are detached houses, 2% townhouses. Where an HOA governs the exterior, its rules on gutter color and style apply before any order is placed.
Hiring in Iowa
Before hiring in Urbana, ask which Iowa license or registration the contractor holds and for a certificate of liability insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Urbana
In a neighborhood with half its homes built by 1994, the usual calls are cleaning, guards and small repairs. The line takes all of it: