The Brothers That Just Do Gutters · Northeast Atlanta
Could Your Gutters Handle Helene?
Helene dropped 11.2 inches on the Atlanta airport in 48 hours and more than 12 inches near Stone Mountain and Dunwoody. Pick your town and home size, watch the storm replay, and see how many gallons a minute your roof sends into the gutters when it really pours.
- NOAA Rainfall Rates for Your Town
- Real Helene Totals
- Free Storm-Ready Check
Quick answer
Could typical gutters handle a storm like Helene? Helene’s total was enormous, 11.2 inches at the Atlanta airport in 48 hours, but gutters fail on how fast rain falls, not how much. NOAA puts a 100-year downpour in our towns at 3.11 to 3.43 inches in an hour, with the worst five minutes falling at 10.8 to 12.9 inches an hour. On a medium-size home that is roughly 81 to 89 gallons a minute for the hour and 281 to 335 at the peak. In a downpour like that, typical standard setups overflow at inside corners, valleys, long runs into one downspout and the downspout outlet. The Brothers That Just Do Gutters Northeast Atlanta will check yours for free. Call (770) 637-5130 or book online.
Sources: National Weather Service Peachtree City Helene post-tropical cyclone report and September 2024 climate summary; National Weather Service via WABE for the 48-hour airport total and the 1886 record.
Helene replay
Replay Helene on your roof
Pick your town and the size of your home. The replay builds the rain to Helene’s real totals, then shows how many gallons a minute your roof pushes into the gutters in the hardest downpours NOAA expects where you live.
- Hours into the storm
- 0 of 48
- Rain so far
- 0.00 in
- Gallons off your roof
- 0
- Gauge
- Atlanta airport
Helene’s real totals, September 26 to 27, 2024
- Atlanta airport, 48 hours11.20 in
- Stone Mountain12.52 in
- Dunwoody12.17 in
- Tucker11.65 in
How fast your roof pushes water into the gutters
- Helene’s 48-hour average pace0 gal/min
- The heaviest hour in a normal year0 gal/min
- A 100-year downpour, for a full hour0 gal/min
- The worst 5 minutes of that downpour0 gal/min
Your result
In a downpour like that, typical standard setups overflow first in four places: inside corners, where two runs meet and water from both sides piles up; valleys, where two roof slopes pour onto one short stretch of gutter; long runs that empty into one downspout; and the downspout outlet itself, the hole the water has to squeeze through. A Storm-Ready Check looks at exactly those spots on your house.
How this works and sources
The math. Gallons per minute = roof square feet x rainfall rate in inches per hour x 0.0104, because one inch of rain on one square foot is about 0.623 gallons. Storm gallons = roof square feet x total inches x 0.623. Roof area is the area the roof covers seen from above, and the three home sizes are round numbers, not a measurement of your house.
The rates. NOAA Atlas 14 (Volume 9) estimates pulled for each town’s coordinates: the 1-year 60-minute rate for a normal year’s heaviest hour, and the 100-year 60-minute and 5-minute rates. A 100-year storm has a 1 in 100 chance in any given year. The International Plumbing Code sizes roof drains to the 100-year, 1-hour rate, and the SMACNA gutter manual uses the 100-year, 5-minute rate (IIBEC).
The totals. NWS Peachtree City Helene report: 1 NE Stone Mountain 12.52 in, Dunwoody 1.2 SW 12.17 in, Tucker 2.3 NNE 11.65 in. Atlanta airport, 11.2 in in 48 hours: NWS via WABE. The replay uses the closest of the three gauges when one is near your town, and the airport total otherwise. Helene’s average pace is the total divided by 48 hours, and the real rain came in heavier bursts.
Sources: NOAA Atlas 14 Precipitation Frequency Data Server; NWS Peachtree City Helene report; NWS Peachtree City September 2024 climate summary; WABE; IIBEC.
How hard it can rain here
The total is not what beats a gutter. The rate is.
Helene’s 11 to 12 inches came over two days. A gutter overflows in minutes, when more water lands on the roof than the system can move out. That is why the tool above uses NOAA’s downpour rates for your town.
Spread evenly over 48 hours, 11.2 inches works out to less than a quarter inch an hour, and almost any clean gutter can carry that. Helene did not fall evenly, though, and neither does a Georgia thunderstorm. The rain comes in bursts, and the bursts are what spill over the front of the gutter and down the wall.
NOAA Atlas 14 is the federal reference for how hard rain falls at a given spot. For every town we serve, it estimates the heaviest hour you should expect in a normal year, and the rate of a 100-year downpour, a storm with a 1 in 100 chance of happening in any year. In our towns, a normal year’s heaviest hour runs about 1.31 to 1.40 inches, which is where the summer “inch in under an hour” comes from. A 100-year hour runs 3.11 to 3.43 inches, and its worst five minutes fall at 10.8 to 12.9 inches an hour.
The rates are not the same everywhere. Towns on the west side, like Canton, Woodstock, Acworth and Jasper, carry the highest numbers in our area. Athens, Watkinsville and Bishop carry the lowest peak rates, though their one-hour numbers are close to everyone else’s.
Downpour rates in Northeast Atlanta towns
| Town | Normal year’s heaviest hour | 100-year hour | 100-year 5-minute rate | Peak flow off a 2,500 sq ft roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suwanee | 1.32 in | 3.14 in | 11.7 in/hr | 304 gal/min |
| Lawrenceville | 1.32 in | 3.16 in | 11.5 in/hr | 299 gal/min |
| Johns Creek | 1.32 in | 3.16 in | 11.8 in/hr | 307 gal/min |
| Roswell | 1.33 in | 3.22 in | 12.0 in/hr | 312 gal/min |
| Cumming | 1.33 in | 3.14 in | 11.8 in/hr | 307 gal/min |
| Canton | 1.37 in | 3.39 in | 12.7 in/hr | 330 gal/min |
| Woodstock | 1.36 in | 3.36 in | 12.4 in/hr | 322 gal/min |
| Marietta | 1.34 in | 3.30 in | 12.1 in/hr | 315 gal/min |
| Gainesville | 1.33 in | 3.14 in | 11.6 in/hr | 302 gal/min |
| Winder | 1.32 in | 3.15 in | 11.2 in/hr | 291 gal/min |
| Athens | 1.35 in | 3.15 in | 10.8 in/hr | 281 gal/min |
| Watkinsville | 1.35 in | 3.12 in | 10.8 in/hr | 281 gal/min |
Source: NOAA Atlas 14, Volume 9, precipitation frequency estimates pulled for each town’s coordinates from the NOAA Precipitation Frequency Data Server. Flow = roof square feet x inches per hour x 0.0104. The International Plumbing Code sizes roof drains to the 100-year, 1-hour rate, and the SMACNA gutter manual uses the 100-year, 5-minute rate (IIBEC).
Where the water wins
The four places a gutter system gives up first
When a downpour overwhelms a typical standard setup, it almost never fails evenly along the whole house. It fails at a few spots where water piles up faster than it can leave. These are the spots our crews check first.
| Spot | Why it overflows | What we check |
|---|---|---|
| Inside corners | Two roof planes pour into the same corner, and water from both runs collides there | Whether water jumps the corner, whether the miter is sealed, and whether a downspout sits close enough to drain it |
| Valleys | A valley gathers water from two slopes and pours it onto one short piece of gutter, often fast enough to shoot past the front edge | Where the valley lands, whether the water overshoots, and whether a splash guard or a nearby downspout is needed |
| Long runs into one downspout | Every foot of roof along the run empties toward the same hole, so the far end backs up before the water gets there | How much roof each downspout carries and whether adding a downspout would split the load |
| The downspout outlet | The outlet is the narrowest point in the system, and one wad of needles or a sweetgum ball cuts its capacity | That every outlet and elbow is clear, flushing each one with water while we watch |
Signs your gutters lost the last downpour
- Water sheeting over the front edge near a corner or below a valley
- A line of splashed red clay or mulch along the foundation
- Stains or peeling paint on the fascia board behind the gutter
- A downspout that trickles while the gutter above it overflows
- Water pooling at the foundation after a storm instead of draining away
- Damp spots in a basement or crawlspace after heavy rain
Homes with complex rooflines, the kind with lots of valleys and corners you see across Johns Creek and Alpharetta, have more of these spots to check. On the 1960s to 1980s brick ranches in Tucker, Lilburn and Stone Mountain, we pay close attention to long runs and how many downspouts share them. Either way, the fix is usually specific to a corner or a run, not the whole house. If a section truly cannot keep up, our crews can form a new seamless run on site, and we explain why in writing first.
September 2024
What Helene left behind in Northeast Atlanta
The National Weather Service summed it up in two lines: widespread rainfall of 6 to 14 inches across north and central Georgia, and strong winds plus heavy rain that downed millions of trees.
The heaviest rain fell in the Atlanta metro and east-central Georgia. Inside our service area, the National Weather Service report lists 12.52 inches just northeast of Stone Mountain, 12.17 inches near Dunwoody and 11.65 inches north of Tucker, all among the 10 highest totals in the Peachtree City office’s report for north and central Georgia. Atlanta’s airport logged 7.62 inches on September 27 alone, a record for the date, and finished the month with 12.29 inches, its third wettest September on record.
North of the city the totals were smaller but still far above normal. The Gainesville airport caught 5.16 inches on September 27 and 10.22 inches for the month. Athens logged 6.29 inches for September, with its biggest day, 3.23 inches, on the 26th. NOAA’s storm records for Helene list trees down in Gwinnett, Forsyth, Hall, Dawson and Oconee counties, one of them on a building in Gwinnett, and a 46 mph gust at the Gainesville airport.
For gutters, Helene was two problems at once: hours of heavy rain that tested every corner and downspout, and wind that put limbs and leaves into the troughs while the rain was still coming. Want to know how often hail and wind storms hit your county outside of hurricane season? Look up your town in the Northeast Atlanta Storm Check.
Helene by the gauge
| Site | Helene total or biggest day | September 2024 total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 NE Stone Mountain | 12.52 in storm total | Not reported |
| Dunwoody 1.2 SW | 12.17 in storm total | Not reported |
| Tucker 2.3 NNE | 11.65 in storm total | Not reported |
| Atlanta airport | 11.2 in in 48 hours; 7.62 in on September 27 | 12.29 in, 8.47 in above normal |
| DeKalb-Peachtree Airport | 8.03 in on September 27 | 11.29 in, 7.07 in above normal |
| Gainesville airport | 5.16 in on September 27 | 10.22 in, 6.33 in above normal |
| Athens airport | 3.23 in on September 26 | 6.29 in, 2.40 in above normal |
Sources: National Weather Service Peachtree City Helene post-tropical cyclone report (storm totals, CoCoRaHS and URBANET gauges) and September 2024 climate summary (daily and monthly totals); National Weather Service via WABE (48-hour airport total); NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (tropical storm records).
Storm-Ready Check
What we look at before the next big one
A Storm-Ready Check is free. A local crew member walks the whole roofline with one question in mind: where would your system lose a downpour like Helene’s?
- Flush every downspoutWater goes through each outlet, elbow and downspout while we watch it drain, because a plugged outlet loses every storm.
- Check the cornersInside corners get a close look for gaps, open miters and water that jumps the gutter.
- Watch the valleysWe look at where each valley lands and whether its water can overshoot the front edge.
- Count the loadWe look at how much roof each downspout drains, and whether one more downspout would split a long run.
- Check slope and hangersA run that sags or lost its pitch holds water instead of moving it, and storms pull hangers loose.
- Follow the water outWe check that every downspout empties onto an extension or into a drain line, away from the clay at your foundation.
Most fixes are small and specific: a cleaning and flush, a corner resealed, a repair to restore slope, an added downspout, or an extension to move water off the foundation. If your downspouts feed buried pipes, we can check those with our underground drainage service. And because a clogged outlet loses every storm, BroGuard stainless micro-mesh guards keep pine needles, oak leaves and sweetgum balls out while a summer downpour flows straight through. When a run is beyond repair, new seamless gutters are formed on your driveway to fit your roofline.
You get a free written estimate for anything we recommend, and if your system is already in good shape, we tell you that too.
Find out where your gutters would lose a Helene downpour. Call (770) 637-5130
Book a Free Storm-Ready CheckHelene and Downpour Questions, Answered
The Atlanta airport logged 11.2 inches in 48 hours on September 26 and 27, 2024. The National Weather Service report lists 12.52 inches just northeast of Stone Mountain, 12.17 inches near Dunwoody and 11.65 inches north of Tucker. Gainesville and Athens got less, with 5.16 inches and 3.23 inches on their biggest days.
It is a rainfall rate with a 1 in 100 chance of happening in any given year, not a storm that comes once a century. NOAA Atlas 14 puts the 100-year one-hour rain in our towns at 3.11 to 3.43 inches, and it can happen two years in a row.
Multiply the roof area in square feet by the rainfall rate in inches per hour, then by 0.0104 to get gallons per minute. A 2,500 square foot roof in Suwanee sends about 82 gallons a minute in a 100-year hour and about 304 gallons a minute in the worst five minutes.
An inside corner collects water from two roof planes at once, so it fills faster than the rest of the run. If the nearest downspout is far away or the outlet is partly clogged, the corner is where water jumps out first. Valleys, long runs into one downspout and the outlet itself are the other usual suspects.
Not always. Many overflow problems come from a clogged outlet, a corner with no downspout nearby or a run that lost its slope, and those are fixed without replacing anything. A Storm-Ready Check tells you which spots are losing water and why, and you get a written estimate before any work.
Nothing. A local crew member checks your corners, valleys, downspouts, outlets, slope and hangers, and where the water goes when it leaves the roof. If anything needs work, you get a free, no-pressure written estimate. Call (770) 637-5130 or book online.
Reviews
What Northeast Atlanta Homeowners Say
“My backyard is heavily wooded, so I needed a fine-mesh system, and they had exactly what I was looking for. Great product, reasonable pricing, professional team, and quick installation. I’m very happy with the results and highly recommend them.”
Posted on Google“We are very pleased with the thorough job of cleaning the valleys and other places the leaves and pinestraw accumulated on our roof and gutter guards. The guys that did the work (William & John?) were very professional and cleaned up afterwards perfectly. Highly recommended!”
Posted on Google“We couldn’t be happier with the repair of our gutters, and the installation of their leaf filters. Everyone was timely, knowledgeable, helpful and professional. We give them our highest reccommendation!”
Posted on GoogleService area
Northeast Atlanta communities we serve
Every community on this list is inside our service area and gets the same local crew, on-site seamless gutters and free written estimates. Call (770) 637-5130 or request a free quote and a Solutionist will come out.
- Alpharetta
- Cumming
- Johns Creek
- Marietta
- Suwanee
- Duluth
- Roswell
- Athens
- Dunwoody
- Lawrenceville
- Acworth
- Arnoldsville
- Auburn
- Ball Ground
- Bethlehem
- Bishop
- Bogart
- Braselton
- Buford
- Canton
- Colbert
- Comer
- Commerce
- Crawford
- Dacula
- Danielsville
- Dawsonville
- Flowery Branch
- Gainesville
- Gillsville
- Grayson
- Homer
- Hoschton
- Hull
- Jasper
- Jefferson
- Lilburn
- Loganville
- Lula
- Marble Hill
- Maysville
- Nicholson
- Norcross
- Oakwood
- Pendergrass
- Snellville
- Statham
- Stone Mountain
- Sugar Hill
- Talmo
- Tate
- Tucker
- Waleska
- Watkinsville
- Winder
- Winterville
- Woodstock
Free Storm-Ready Check
Find out before the next Helene does
Book a free, no-pressure Storm-Ready Check. A local Solutionist will flush your downspouts, check your corners, valleys and outlets, and show you exactly where your gutters would lose a downpour.
The Brothers That Just Do Gutters · Northeast Atlanta · (770) 637-5130 · Serving Northeast Atlanta
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