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Gutters · Broward County

Gutters in Broward County, FL

On April 12, 2023, the gauge at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport caught 6.15 inches of rain in one hour and 25.91 inches in the day. Gutters in Broward County have to be sized for bursts like that, not for the county's yearly average, and they have to send the water at least a foot from the wall.

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High-Velocity Hurricane Zone

Updated October 2026

Drone view of a single-story home with a brown-gray shingle roof and box vents under large oak trees, a metal carport roof in the corner and a street behind.

Gutters in Broward County, in short

Size for the burst. At NOAA Atlas 14's Fort Lauderdale point, a 10-year storm rains 10.9 inches an hour for five minutes. Florida's plumbing code rates a 6-inch half-round gutter at 110 gallons a minute at a 1/8-inch-per-foot slope, about 49 percent more than a 5-inch. Downspouts must discharge at least 1 foot from the wall, and gutters are required where the eaves project less than 6 inches.

Sources for this answer

Rain

10.9 inches an hour: the rain Broward gutters face

Broward is one of Florida's wetter places. The 1991-2020 normal is 60.95 inches a year at the airport and 64.25 inches at Fort Lauderdale Beach; among ten Florida stations in NOAA's normals, only Miami International (67.41) and West Palm Beach (61.75) run higher than the airport.

The burst is what overflows a gutter. NOAA Atlas 14 puts the 5-minute rate at its Fort Lauderdale point at 10.9 inches an hour in a 10-year storm and 16 in a 100-year storm. Across ten Florida points, the 10-year figure ran from 8.71 in Orlando to 11.3 in West Palm Beach, so Broward sits near the top.

The rain is seasonal, too: 71.9 percent of the airport's normal total falls May through October, with June the wettest month at 9.55 inches.

Sizing

Gutter and downspout capacity under the plumbing code

Florida's plumbing code sizes gutters by flow. Table 1106.6 rates half-round gutters at a 1/8-inch-per-foot slope at 39 gallons a minute for 4-inch, 74 for 5-inch and 110 for 6-inch, so stepping up from 5 to 6 inches adds about 49 percent. Downspouts are rated in Table 1106.3: a 3-inch round leader carries 92 gallons a minute and a 4-inch round 192.

The design rain decides how much roof each gutter can serve. Storm drainage under the plumbing code is sized on the 100-year hourly rate, 5.58 inches an hour at the Fort Lauderdale point, but the 10-year, 5-minute burst there is 10.9. Because 10.9 is nearly twice 5.58, a gutter sized on the hourly rate can drain only about half the roof area it was sized for when the 5-minute burst hits. Add half the area of any wall that sheds rain onto the roof (1106.4).

Rain on your roof

Preset: 9.32 inches, the 10-year 24-hour rain (NOAA Atlas 14 at Fort Lauderdale).

11,613 gallons run off that roof, all of it toward the gutters and downspouts.

Math: square feet × inches × 0.623 gallons.

Where water goes

Downspouts and discharge on Broward's wet ground

Two code rules apply in Broward. A house whose eaves overhang less than 6 inches needs gutters and downspouts (gable rakes and a roof above another roof excepted), and every downspout has to let go of its water at least a foot from the wall, whether by buried pipe, extension or splash block (FBC-Residential R318.5; FBC-Building 1503.7).

A foot is the minimum, not the goal, in a county where Tropical Storm Eta's 2020 flooding put water inside some buildings in Fort Lauderdale, Lauderhill and Davie, and where 84,562 flood insurance policies are in force. Point downspouts toward the low side of the yard and away from slabs, doors and the neighbor's lot.

White rectangular downspout running down a stucco wall and turning out onto a splash block (illustration)Illustration

Illustration: a downspout discharging onto a splash block.

Materials

Gutter metal and fascia near the Broward coast

Salt air is hard on metal. FEMA notes that metal corrosion is most pronounced within 3,000 feet of the ocean, a distance that matters in barrier-island towns such as Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and Hillsboro Beach. Ask what the gutters, hangers and fasteners are made of, and keep the metals compatible.

Wind is the other load. Gutters hang on the fascia, and FEMA has long counted soffits among the parts that perform poorly in hurricanes; since the 2007 code, soffits must resist the same wind loads as walls. If the fascia behind a gutter is soft or stained, fix it before new gutters go up.

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Questions

Gutters in Broward County: questions

Do I need a permit to install gutters in Broward County?

Ask your building department before work starts. We found no statewide rule that settles gutter permits, so the answer comes from the local building official. In Broward that is one of the 31 municipal building offices, or the Broward County Building Code Division for unincorporated areas and contract cities. Each has a permit page on its official site, linked from the Broward County page.

Source: city and county building pages.

Related: Broward County

What size gutters does a Broward home need?

It depends on the roof and the rain you size for. The Fort Lauderdale Atlas 14 point sees 10.9 inches an hour for five minutes in a 10-year storm, and the plumbing code rates a 6-inch half-round at 110 gallons a minute against 74 for a 5-inch. Roof area, pitch, wall runoff and downspout count decide the final size.

Source: FBC-Plumbing 2023, Table 1106.6.

Related: Gutters

How far should a downspout discharge from a Broward house?

A foot or more from the wall. The rule sits in a termite-protection section, FBC-Residential R318.5 (repeated in FBC-Building 1503.7), and lets the water leave by buried pipe, tail extension or splash block. On Broward lots that flooded during Tropical Storm Eta in 2020, more distance and a clear path to the street or swale are worth planning.

Source: FBC-Residential 2023, R318.5.

Related: Gutters

How often should gutters be cleaned in Broward?

At least twice a year, spring and fall, and more often under trees or after storms, according to one Florida home insurer's guidance. In Broward, time the spring cleaning before May, since 71.9 percent of the airport's normal rain falls May through October, and the fall one after the September-to-November peak of pine needle drop that UF/IFAS describes.

Source: Tower Hill Insurance learning center.

Related: Gutters

What gutter hangers hold up in Broward's wind?

Closer spacing helps. One hidden-hanger maker lists 24 inches on center as standard, but for coastal and storm-prone areas it recommends its clip option, aluminum for salt air, and 16-inch spacing for added uplift resistance. Broward qualifies on both counts: Irma's gusts reached 97 knots at Deerfield Beach in 2017. Ask what hanger spacing and fasteners a quote includes before you sign.

Source: hanger maker's product sheet.

Related: Gutters

Broward County

More in Broward County

Sources for this page(54)
  1. 1.NWS Miami, 'Fort Lauderdale Extreme Rainfall and Flooding - April 12th, 2023' StoryMap; OpenFEMA. Read Oct 5, 2026.
  2. 2.NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020 (access data service). Read Oct 5, 2026.
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  4. 4.Tropical Storm Eta (2020). NOAA National Hurricane Center, Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Eta (AL292020). Read Oct 5, 2026.
  5. 5.NFIP flood insurance policies in force: 84,562. OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Policies v2 (count query: effective on or before and terminating after 2026-10-05). Read Oct 5, 2026.
  6. 6.Hurricane Irma (2017). NOAA National Hurricane Center, Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Irma (AL112017). Read Oct 5, 2026.
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  8. 8.Permit office: Broward County Building Code Division (unincorporated Broward and contract cities). Broward County Building Code Division (unincorporated Broward and contract cities). Read Oct 5, 2026.
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Gutters in Broward County

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