Effingham County, Illinois · Effingham
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Effingham, Altamont and Teutopolis. 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.
Effingham County averages 28 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to February, and 28% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in July. Effingham County averages 10.3 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Effingham County gets about 10.3 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 74 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
20% of occupied homes in Effingham County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Illinois county median of 16.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 60 times a year in Effingham County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 34,522 people live in Effingham County, 479 square miles in eastern Illinois, in roughly 15,413 homes. The county seat is Effingham, and Altamont, Teutopolis and Dieterich round out the largest towns. The county's median home was built in 1978.
43/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Effingham County ranks 79 of 102 Illinois counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Effingham County ranks highest compared with other Illinois counties.
For frozen pipes, Effingham County is a typical Illinois county, which is still plenty. From 2015–2024 it averaged 28 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 94 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 67th of 102 counties.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 14 days below freezing (ending January 2018), and the low bottomed out near -8°F on December 23, 2022.
Most freezing nights fall from November 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 25 and the last spring freeze around Apr 13.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Illinois. The county gets about 46.7 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 10.3 days of an inch or more (29th of 102). Those downpours cluster in July, August and October, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 3.38 inches on June 8, 2015. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 6.15 inches (through December 29, 2015).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 74 times a year here. They're the main driver of ice dams and of water working its way through foundation cracks in late winter.
Housing
54% of homes in Effingham County predate 1980, below the Illinois county median of 65.9%, which ranks 87th of Illinois's 102 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 21% 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.
25% 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.
Here 7% of housing is manufactured homes. Check the skirting and the heat tape on the main water line every fall, because that one exposed line is what freezes.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 60 times a year here, above the Illinois county median of 51. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally 30 to 50%. Basements can pass 60% on their own in summer, so a dehumidifier matters even without a leak, and anything wet should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Effingham County's occupied homes: 45% utility gas, 34% electric, 17% propane and 3% wood. Wood heat is 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 Effingham County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Shelby gets more pipe-freeze nights than Effingham. Shelby County has the oldest housing nearby, with 67% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Effingham | Illinois median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 28% | 38% | 85 of 102 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 54% | 66% | 87 of 102 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 21% | 15% | 17 of 102 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 7.2% | 5.6% | 40 of 102 |
| Vacant homes | 9.5% | 11% | 67 of 102 |
| Wood or propane heat | 20% | 17% | 38 of 102 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 28/yr | 35/yr | 67 of 102 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 10/yr | 8.4/yr | 29 of 102 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 74/yr | 81/yr | 67 of 102 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 60/yr | 51/yr | 36 of 102 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Illinois county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Effingham County: freezing from November to February, heavy rain in July, August and October.
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