Ashland County, Ohio · Ashland
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Ashland, Loudonville and Sullivan. 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.
Ashland County averages 37 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to March, and 43% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in July. Ashland County averages 5.4 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Ashland County gets about 5.4 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 87 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
20% of occupied homes in Ashland County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Ohio county median of 15.9%.
With 24 muggy nights a year, mold in Ashland County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Ashland County covers 423 square miles of central Ohio, with about 52,256 residents and 22,568 homes. Ashland is the county seat; Loudonville, Sullivan and Cinnamon Lake are the next largest communities. The county's median home was built in 1969.
61/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Ashland County ranks 16 of 88 Ohio counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Ashland County ranks highest compared with other Ohio counties.
Ashland is on the colder side of Ohio for pipes. It averaged 117 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 37 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 88 Ohio counties that's 3rd.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 19 days below freezing (ending March 2015), and the low bottomed out near -12°F on February 20, 2015.
The freeze season here runs November to March, with January the coldest. If you travel then, leave the thermostat at 55°F or above and open sink cabinets on outside walls.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 23 and the last spring freeze around Apr 27.
Rainfall is about average for Ohio. The county gets about 40.2 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 5.4 days of an inch or more (54th of 88). Those downpours cluster in June, July and September, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 3.29 inches on August 24, 2023. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.03 inches (through August 25, 2023).
About 87 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
Roughly 63% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Ashland near the middle of Ohio's 88 counties.
43% were built before 1960. Homes from that era often still have galvanized steel supply pipe, which rusts from the inside until it pinholes, and cast iron drains that crack with age. Slow leaks behind walls are a common start to water damage in these houses.
Beyond water
About 24 nights a year in Ashland County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (80th of 88 counties). June is the wettest month. 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 expectMain heating fuel in Ashland County's occupied homes: 49% utility gas, 25% electric, 13% 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 Ashland County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Richland gets more pipe-freeze nights than Ashland. Richland County has the oldest housing nearby, with 74% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Ashland | Ohio median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 43% | 37% | 25 of 88 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 63% | 61% | 38 of 88 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 17% | 17% | 45 of 88 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 4.6% | 5.9% | 51 of 88 |
| Vacant homes | 8.2% | 8.4% | 47 of 88 |
| Wood or propane heat | 20% | 16% | 32 of 88 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 37/yr | 31/yr | 3 of 88 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 5.4/yr | 5.7/yr | 54 of 88 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 87/yr | 82/yr | 15 of 88 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 24/yr | 35/yr | 80 of 88 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Ohio county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Ashland County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in June, July and September.
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