Union County, Georgia · Blairsville
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Blairsville. Start the steps below while you wait.
Answered 24/7 by a participating local provider. We're a referral service and don't do the work ourselves. How it works
Start here
Pick the closest match. These steps limit the damage and protect your insurance claim. Skip anything that isn't safe.
Union County averages 10 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly December to February, and 6% of its homes predate 1960.
February brings the most downpours to Union County, part of 17.4 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
6% of homes here predate 1960, when clay and cast iron sewer laterals were standard. Roots and cracks in those lines are a common cause of backups.
In Union County, 4.37 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
46% of occupied homes in Union County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Georgia county median of 7.1%.
With 15 muggy nights a year, mold in Union County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 15,164 homes and around 26,304 residents, Union County is 322 square miles of northern Georgia. The county seat is Blairsville. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1995.
57/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Union County ranks 51 of 159 Georgia counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Union County ranks highest compared with other Georgia counties.
Union is on the colder side of Georgia for pipes. It averaged 76 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 10 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 159 Georgia counties that's 2nd.
Most freezing nights fall from December to February, peaking in January. Disconnect garden hoses and shut off outdoor spigots before the first hard frost, and keep the heat at 55°F or higher if you'll be away.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 28 and the last spring freeze around Apr 12.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Georgia. The county gets about 67.8 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 17.4 days of an inch or more (5th of 159). Those downpours cluster in January, February and December, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 4.37 inches on March 26, 2021. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 7.3 inches (through September 28, 2024).
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 74 days a year. Each cycle melts and refreezes water at roof edges and in foundation cracks, which is how ice dams and basement seepage get started.
Housing
Roughly 20% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Union among the newer housing stocks of Georgia's 159 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 38% of today's homes. In houses that new, the weak points are washing machine hoses, ice maker lines, water heaters and sump pumps rather than the pipes in the walls.
43% date from 1980 to 1999, the window when polybutylene, a gray flexible plastic supply pipe, was used in some homes. It's prone to leaks at the fittings, so it's worth checking for in a house from those years.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 14% of the housing here. Water lines in the underbelly depend on intact skirting and working heat tape, and they're usually the first to freeze in a cold snap.
24% of homes were vacant at survey time. A leak in an empty rental or seasonal house can run for days before anyone notices, which is why those losses tend to be larger.
Beyond water
Union County averages 15 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in February. Keep indoor humidity under 60%, as the EPA advises, and dry any leak within 24 to 48 hours; in a humid month a wet basement left alone won't dry by itself.
Mold remediation: what to expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Union County it's 3% utility gas, 51% electric, 41% propane and 5% wood. Wood and propane heat are more common here than the state median. Have chimneys swept and fuel-burning appliances serviced each fall, and keep three feet clear around stoves and space heaters.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Union County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Fannin gets more pipe-freeze nights than Union. Fannin County has the oldest housing nearby, with 26% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Union | Georgia median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 6.2% | 15% | 143 of 159 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 20% | 38% | 141 of 159 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 38% | 27% | 35 of 159 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 14% | 21% | 107 of 159 |
| Vacant homes | 24% | 14% | 22 of 159 |
| Wood or propane heat | 46% | 7.1% | 1 of 159 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 10/yr | 2/yr | 2 of 159 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 17/yr | 12/yr | 5 of 159 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 74/yr | 29/yr | 1 of 159 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 15/yr | 112/yr | 159 of 159 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Georgia county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Union County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in January, February and December.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology