Cook County, Illinois
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Wilmette, IL
Wilmette gets about 40 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 12.2 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 6.4. Every 1,000 square feet of roof sheds about 24,500 gallons a year, and all of it goes through the gutters.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving WilmetteWilmette: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00111497, 5 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
For days with an inch of rain or more, Wilmette ranks among the fewest heavy-rain days of the 695 places in Illinois on this site (8.3 a year). Its housing ranks 107th oldest by median year built of the 695 places in Illinois on this site (half built by 1956). By its first fall frost it sits near the middle of the 695 places in Illinois on this site (October 21).
When to clean gutters in Wilmette
The first fall frost comes around October 21 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around April 26 (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 Wilmette rain
What overwhelms a gutter is a burst, not a season. In Wilmette the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 6.92 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 2). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 1,040 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 2,080, 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.
Wilmette 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 Wilmette
Half the homes in Wilmette were built by 1956, 81% 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.
88% of households own their home, and 77% of homes are detached houses, 5% townhouses. In a townhouse or HOA community, check who owns the gutters and what colors are allowed before booking.
Hiring in Illinois
Ask any contractor working in Wilmette what Illinois requires of them for gutter work, and to show proof of insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Wilmette
With half the homes built by 1956, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: