Gutter Repair in Washington

Local know-how

Months of rain, moss and fir needles

Western Washington's gutters stay wet from October through May. Seattle, Tacoma and Everett average around 37 to 40 inches of rain a year, and Olympia closer to 50, falling as long stretches of light to moderate rain. Moss, fir needles and alder leaves compost in the gutter and clog downspouts.

Older homes in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett often have rotted fascia behind decades of overflow, and Craftsman bungalows with deep eaves are especially prone. Hillside homes need careful discharge to avoid erosion and landslide risk in wet winters.

Eastern Washington, including Spokane, Yakima and the Tri-Cities, is much drier, with cold, snowy winters and hot summers. Gutters there face ice dams and freeze-thaw rather than moss, and ponderosa pine needles around Spokane.

Vancouver, across the Columbia from Portland, gets east winds out of the Gorge that bring ice storms. Across the state, hidden hangers at close spacing and sound fascia make the biggest difference to how long a gutter lasts.

Seattle's rain is steady, not heavy

Seattle's reputation for rain comes from how often it rains, not how hard. Many winter days bring drizzle or light rain for hours, and the city sees measurable precipitation on more than 150 days a year. That steady wetting suits moss and lichen, which grow on north-facing roofs and slough into gutters as a green paste. Gutters rarely overflow from volume alone; they overflow because outlets are matted with moss, needles and composted leaves. Regular clearing matters more than a larger trough, although atmospheric rivers in autumn can still bring several inches in a day.

Roof moss, zinc strips and gutter care

Many Puget Sound homeowners treat roof moss with zinc or copper strips near the ridge, or with moss-killing products applied in dry weather. Dead moss loosens and washes into the gutters over the following weeks and months, so a gutter clean should follow any roof treatment. Pressure-washing moss off shingles can damage them and blast debris into gutters and downspouts; soft washing and hand removal are gentler. Fine-mesh gutter guards slow down moss and needles but need brushing off, because moss can grow on top of the mesh itself.

Tacoma, Everett and the Puget Sound suburbs

South of Seattle, Tacoma has a large stock of early twentieth-century homes in the North End and Stadium District, many with deep eaves, wood fascia and gutters replaced several times. Everett and Snohomish County to the north get a little more rain on the hills and have growing suburbs with newer homes. Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond and Sammamish on the Eastside have large homes under tall conifers, where gutters fill with fir and cedar needles year-round. Kitsap Peninsula homes across the Sound face wind off the water and heavy tree cover.

Landslides and steep lots

Much of the Puget Sound shoreline and many neighborhoods in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett sit on steep glacial bluffs. Saturated soil after long wet spells can slide, and concentrated roof runoff on a slope is one of the factors local geotechnical engineers warn about. Homes on bluffs should pipe downspouts to a safe outlet at the bottom of the slope or into the storm system rather than releasing water at the top. Seattle and other cities have rules about drainage on steep slopes, so check before changing where your downspouts go.

Spokane and the Inland Northwest

Spokane gets about 16 to 17 inches of precipitation a year, and around 40 to 45 inches of snow in a typical winter. Cold snaps and freeze-thaw make ice dams a real issue on older homes in the South Hill and around Gonzaga. Ponderosa pines across the region drop long needles that pile up quickly. Wildfire smoke and ash in late summer also settle in gutters. The Tri-Cities and Yakima are drier and hotter, with wind and dust as the main concerns.

Rain gardens and Seattle's RainWise program

Seattle Public Utilities and King County have run the RainWise program in certain neighborhoods, offering rebates for rain gardens and cisterns that capture roof runoff and keep it out of combined sewers. Eligible areas and amounts change over time, so check the current program map. Even outside those areas, routing downspouts into a rain garden or a dry well can reduce standing water in the yard, as long as the soil drains and the outlet is far enough from the house.

Hiring a contractor in Washington

Washington requires construction contractors, including gutter installers, to register with the Department of Labor and Industries, carry a bond and hold liability insurance. You can look up a contractor's registration on the L&I website before signing. Ask for a written scope that lists gutter size, material, hanger type and spacing, downspout count and how the downspouts will discharge. Calls from Puget Sound and Spokane are routed to vetted local gutter pros.

Olympia, Bellingham and the Olympic Peninsula

Olympia gets noticeably more rain than Seattle, and Bellingham, near the Canadian border, sees cold outflow winds from the Fraser Valley that bring snow and ice storms a few times a winter. On the Olympic Peninsula, towns such as Forks and Port Angeles range from rainforest totals to the drier rain shadow around Sequim. Gutters there face the full range, from extreme volume on the west side to modest totals on the east.

Choosing gutters for the Northwest

Six-inch seamless aluminum suits most Western Washington homes, with fine mesh guards where firs and cedars overhang. Half-round gutters suit Craftsman houses. Because the gutters rarely dry out between October and May, sealed joints and good slope matter, so standing water does not sit in low spots and rot the fascia behind.

Vancouver and Southwest Washington

Vancouver, Camas and Battle Ground sit across the Columbia from Portland and share its climate, including the cold east winds out of the Gorge that bring ice and snow a few times each winter. Many homes there were built in the last thirty years on former farmland, with young trees that will load gutters more each year as they grow.

Smooth-wall pipe and buried lines in Washington soils

Buried downspout lines here carry needles, moss fragments and silt in every storm, and corrugated pipe collects all three in its ridges. A line that worked for ten years surcharges at the top of the downspout once the ridges have filled, which looks exactly like a blocked gutter from the ground.

Smooth-wall pipe laid on a steady fall, with a cleanout at each bend and a visible outlet, is worth the extra cost in a climate where the pipe is in use for seven months of the year.