Bollinger County, Missouri · Marble Hill
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Marble Hill, Sedgewickville and Glen Allen. 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 23% of homes built before 1960 and about 20 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
March brings the most downpours to Bollinger County, part of 12.9 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
23% 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.
Bollinger County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 4.28 inches, and about 72 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
47% of occupied homes in Bollinger County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Missouri county median of 24.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 71 times a year in Bollinger County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 10,559 people live in Bollinger County, 618 square miles in southeast Missouri, in roughly 5,046 homes. The county seat is Marble Hill, and Sedgewickville, Glen Allen and Zalma round out the largest towns. Half the homes here were built before 1982, half after.
50/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Bollinger County ranks 59 of 114 Missouri counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Bollinger County ranks highest compared with other Missouri counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for Missouri, and pipes still freeze. From 2015–2024 it averaged 20 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 84 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 94th of 114 counties.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 10 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near -6°F on February 19, 2015.
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.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 28 and end around Apr 4.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Missouri. The county gets about 51.4 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 12.9 days of an inch or more (14th of 114). Those downpours cluster in February, March and April, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 4.28 inches on April 30, 2017. The worst three-day stretch dropped 8.14 inches, ending August 16, 2016, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 72 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
48% of homes in Bollinger County predate 1980, below the Missouri county median of 53%, which ranks 77th of Missouri's 114 counties.
The mix runs from 23% built before 1960 to 22% built since 2000, so older neighborhoods bring aging pipe while newer subdivisions bring failed appliance lines and water heaters.
The 1980s and 1990s account for 31% 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.
16% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, above the Missouri county median of 9.8%. Their water lines run under the floor behind the skirting, so a torn skirt or failed heat tape freezes them faster than lines in a site-built house.
The Census counted 22% of homes as vacant, above the Missouri county median of 15.3%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
Bollinger County averages 71 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Bollinger County homes break down as 11% utility gas, 41% electric, 32% propane and 15% wood. Wood and propane heat are more common here than in most Missouri counties. Heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fires nationally, and the NFPA recommends having chimneys and vents inspected every year.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Bollinger County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Madison and Perry get more pipe-freeze nights than Bollinger. Stoddard County has the oldest housing nearby, with 58% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Bollinger | Missouri median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 23% | 25% | 69 of 114 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 48% | 53% | 77 of 114 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 22% | 21% | 52 of 114 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 16% | 9.8% | 16 of 114 |
| Vacant homes | 22% | 15% | 26 of 114 |
| Wood or propane heat | 47% | 25% | 11 of 114 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 20/yr | 28/yr | 94 of 114 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 13/yr | 10/yr | 14 of 114 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 72/yr | 77/yr | 88 of 114 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 71/yr | 65/yr | 27 of 114 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Missouri county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Bollinger County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in February, March and April.
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