Ripley County, Indiana · Versailles
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Batesville, Versailles and Milan. 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.
With 35% of homes built before 1960 and about 26 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 8.6 times a year here, most often in March. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
35% 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 Ripley County, 2.88 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
24% of occupied homes in Ripley County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Indiana county median of 17%.
About 45 nights a year here stay at 65°F or warmer, so basements and crawl spaces can grow mold even without a leak.
Local risk profile
With 12,461 homes and around 29,095 residents, Ripley County is 446 square miles of southeast Indiana. Besides Versailles, the county seat, the biggest communities are Batesville, Milan and Osgood. The county's median home was built in 1978.
47/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Ripley County ranks 59 of 92 Indiana counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Ripley County ranks highest compared with other Indiana counties.
Ripley County is milder than most of Indiana, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. It averaged 95 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 26 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 92 Indiana counties that's 71st.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 13 days below freezing (ending January 2018), and the low bottomed out near -11°F on February 21, 2015.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs November to March. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 29 and the last spring freeze around Apr 18.
Rainfall is about average for Indiana. About 8.6 days a year bring an inch or more (37th of 92), most often in March, out of 48.4 inches of total precipitation. On June 19, 2021, 2.88 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.05 inches (through June 18, 2019).
About 78 days a year swing from below freezing at night to above freezing by day. Those freeze-thaw cycles feed ice dams on roofs, open cracks in foundations and driveways, and stress pipes that are already marginal.
Housing
Indiana's 92 counties range widely in housing age; Ripley ranks 57th, with 53% of its homes built before 1980.
Housing age is mixed: 35% of homes are pre-1960 and 19% are 2000 or newer. Ask any plumber which era your house is from and you'll know which failures to watch for.
The 1980s and 1990s account for 28% of the county's homes. If yours is from those decades, look under the sinks and at the water heater for gray plastic pipe stamped PB, which is polybutylene and leak-prone.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 8% 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.
Beyond water
Ripley County averages 45 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in June. Mold grows when indoor humidity stays above about 60%, the EPA's ceiling. A basement dehumidifier set to 50% and drying anything wet within 24 to 48 hours prevents most problems.
Mold remediation: what to expectBy main heating fuel, Ripley County homes break down as 34% utility gas, 39% electric, 17% propane and 7% 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 Ripley County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Decatur and Franklin get more pipe-freeze nights than Ripley. Jefferson County has the oldest housing nearby, with 65% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Ripley | Indiana median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 35% | 35% | 48 of 92 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 53% | 58% | 57 of 92 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 19% | 18% | 39 of 92 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 7.7% | 6.4% | 35 of 92 |
| Vacant homes | 7.5% | 9.2% | 61 of 92 |
| Wood or propane heat | 24% | 17% | 27 of 92 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 26/yr | 33/yr | 71 of 92 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 8.6/yr | 7.8/yr | 37 of 92 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 78/yr | 84/yr | 73 of 92 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 45/yr | 38/yr | 27 of 92 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Indiana county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Ripley County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in February, March and June.
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