Sherburne County, Minnesota · Elk River
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Elk River, Big Lake and Zimmerman. 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 9% of homes built before 1960 and about 87 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 4.7 times a year here, most often in August. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Sherburne County gets about 4.7 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Sherburne County, 3 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
10% of occupied homes in Sherburne County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Minnesota county median of 30%.
With 14 muggy nights a year, mold in Sherburne County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 37,099 homes and around 100,560 residents, Sherburne County is 433 square miles of central Minnesota. Elk River is the county seat; Big Lake, Zimmerman and Becker are the next largest communities. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1996.
31/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Sherburne County ranks 87 of 87 Minnesota counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Sherburne County ranks highest compared with other Minnesota counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Sherburne County sits near the middle of the state. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 87 nights a year at or below 20°F (47th of 87) and 158 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 33 days below freezing (ending March 2019), and the low bottomed out near -33°F on January 31, 2019.
Most freezing nights fall from November to April, 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.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 14 and end around May 2.
Rainfall is about average for Minnesota. About 4.7 days a year bring an inch or more (57th of 87), most often in August, out of 29.9 inches of total precipitation. On October 3, 2017, 3 inches fell in a single day. The worst three-day stretch dropped 4.01 inches, ending October 3, 2017, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 85 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
26% of homes in Sherburne County predate 1980, below the Minnesota county median of 58.4%, which ranks 85th of Minnesota's 87 counties.
41% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of Minnesota. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps and storms.
33% 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.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 14 times a year here, close to the Minnesota county median of 13. 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 Sherburne County it's 72% utility gas, 16% electric, 9% propane and 1% wood. Heating equipment, cooking and electrical failures cause most home fires nationally. Even a small kitchen fire can leave soot through the whole house, because smoke follows air currents into closets, ducts and attic space.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Sherburne County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Benton, Isanti, Mille Lacs and Stearns get more pipe-freeze nights than Sherburne. Hennepin County has the oldest housing nearby, with 60% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Sherburne | Minnesota median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 9% | 34% | 87 of 87 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 26% | 58% | 85 of 87 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 41% | 21% | 4 of 87 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 1.3% | 3.8% | 81 of 87 |
| Vacant homes | 4.2% | 11% | 81 of 87 |
| Wood or propane heat | 10% | 30% | 79 of 87 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 87/yr | 89/yr | 47 of 87 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 4.7/yr | 5.3/yr | 57 of 87 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 85/yr | 86/yr | 54 of 87 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 14/yr | 13/yr | 38 of 87 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Minnesota county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Sherburne County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in May, July and August.
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