Kershaw County, South Carolina · Camden
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Lugoff, Camden and East Camden. 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.
Kershaw County averages 3 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly January, and 11% of its homes predate 1960.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 9.3 times a year here, most often in December. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Kershaw County gets about 9.3 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 43 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
7% of occupied homes in Kershaw County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the South Carolina county median of 5.1%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 106 times a year in Kershaw County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 30,134 homes and around 68,314 residents, Kershaw County is 727 square miles of northern South Carolina. Besides Camden, the county seat, the biggest communities are Lugoff, East Camden and Elgin. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1993.
34/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Kershaw County ranks 42 of 46 South Carolina counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Kershaw County ranks highest compared with other South Carolina counties.
Kershaw is on the colder side of South Carolina for pipes. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 3 nights a year at or below 20°F (7th of 46) and 43 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Most freezing nights fall from January, 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 Nov 15 and the last spring freeze around Mar 18.
Kershaw gets fewer downpours than most South Carolina counties, but they still fill basements. The county gets about 45.7 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 9.3 days of an inch or more (46th of 46). Those downpours cluster in September, November and December, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 4.33 inches on October 4, 2015. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 9.61 inches (through October 5, 2015).
About 43 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 31% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Kershaw among the newer housing stocks of South Carolina's 46 counties.
Since 2000 the county has added enough housing that 36% of homes are that new. Modern PEX and copper rarely fail on their own; the leaks come from connections, appliances and storms.
About 33% of homes went up between 1980 and 1999. Some houses from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s were plumbed with polybutylene, a gray plastic pipe known for failing at fittings. A plumber can tell you in a few minutes whether you have it.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 19% 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
About 106 nights a year in Kershaw County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (29th of 46 counties). July 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 Kershaw County's occupied homes: 20% utility gas, 72% electric, 5% 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 Kershaw County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Lancaster gets more pipe-freeze nights than Kershaw. All of its neighbors see more heavy-rain days. Lee County has the oldest housing nearby, with 45% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Kershaw | South Carolina median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 11% | 15% | 37 of 46 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 31% | 40% | 38 of 46 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 36% | 25% | 11 of 46 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 19% | 22% | 28 of 46 |
| Vacant homes | 11% | 16% | 36 of 46 |
| Wood or propane heat | 6.5% | 5.1% | 21 of 46 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 3/yr | 2/yr | 7 of 46 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 9.3/yr | 12/yr | 46 of 46 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 43/yr | 35/yr | 13 of 46 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 106/yr | 114/yr | 29 of 46 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest South Carolina county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Kershaw County: freezing from January, heavy rain in September, November and December.
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