Houston County, Tennessee · Erin
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Tennessee Ridge and Erin. 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.
Pipes freeze in Houston County on about 13 nights a year, mostly December to February. Older homes, 21% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in February. Houston County averages 14 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Houston County spike on heavy-rain days, about 14 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 59 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
13% of occupied homes in Houston County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Tennessee county median of 7.8%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 83 times a year in Houston County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Houston County covers 200 square miles of northwest Tennessee, with about 8,353 residents and 3,954 homes. Erin is the county seat; Tennessee Ridge is the next largest community. Half the homes here were built before 1981, half after.
70/100 Water Damage Risk Index: High Houston County ranks 4 of 95 Tennessee counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Houston County ranks highest compared with other Tennessee counties.
Houston County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Tennessee. It averaged 65 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 13 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 95 Tennessee counties that's 18th.
On December 23, 2022 the low fell to about -2°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 7 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs December to February. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
Freezing nights typically start around Nov 3 and end around Mar 30.
Rainfall is about average for Tennessee. Of roughly 53.8 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 14 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 49th of 95. February, April and December see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 4.69 inches, September 1, 2017. The worst three-day stretch dropped 6.13 inches, ending September 2, 2017, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 59 days a year. Each cycle melts and refreezes water at roof edges and in foundation cracks, which is how ice dams and basement seepage get started.
Housing
Roughly 48% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Houston among the oldest housing stocks of Tennessee's 95 counties.
21% 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.
29% 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.
17% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, close to the Tennessee county median of 15.9%. 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 15% of homes as vacant, above the Tennessee county median of 11.9%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 83 times a year here, above the Tennessee county median of 74. 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, Houston County homes break down as 12% utility gas, 74% electric, 9% propane and 4% wood. Wood and propane heat are 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 Houston County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Dickson gets more pipe-freeze nights than Houston. Humphreys County has the oldest housing nearby, with 53% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Houston | Tennessee median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 21% | 16% | 18 of 95 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 48% | 41% | 23 of 95 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 23% | 27% | 71 of 95 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 17% | 16% | 43 of 95 |
| Vacant homes | 15% | 12% | 28 of 95 |
| Wood or propane heat | 13% | 7.8% | 30 of 95 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 13/yr | 11/yr | 18 of 95 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 14/yr | 14/yr | 49 of 95 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 59/yr | 60/yr | 58 of 95 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 83/yr | 74/yr | 27 of 95 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Tennessee county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Houston County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in February, April 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