Bandera County, Texas · Bandera
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Lakehills, Lake Medina Shores and Bandera. 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 10% of homes built before 1960 and about 2 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Basements flood here mostly in May. Bandera County averages 7.1 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Bandera County spike on heavy-rain days, about 7.1 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Bandera County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.44 inches, and about 21 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
12% of occupied homes in Bandera County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Texas county median of 6.5%.
With 140 muggy nights a year, mold in Bandera County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Bandera County covers 791 square miles of central Texas, with about 22,021 residents and 11,585 homes. Besides Bandera, the county seat, the biggest communities are Lakehills and Lake Medina Shores. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1997.
38/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Bandera County ranks 202 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Bandera County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
For frozen pipes, Bandera County is a typical Texas county, which is still plenty. From 2015–2024 it averaged 2 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 22 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 126th of 232 counties.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 4 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near 8°F on February 16, 2021.
With only about 22 freezing nights a year, many homes here aren't built for cold, so a single arctic outbreak can burst pipes across the county. The record low in this data was about 8°F, on February 16, 2021.
Rainfall is about average for Texas. Of roughly 27.5 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 7.1 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 127th of 232. April, May and September see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.44 inches, May 24, 2015. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 3.96 inches (through December 5, 2016).
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 21 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
Texas's 232 counties range widely in housing age; Bandera ranks 212th, with 22% of its homes built before 1980.
45% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of Texas. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps and storms.
About 32% 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 29% 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.
20% of homes were vacant at survey time. A leak in an empty rental or seasonal house can run for days before anyone notices, which is why those losses tend to be larger.
Beyond water
Bandera County averages 140 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 expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Bandera County it's 3% utility gas, 84% electric, 10% propane and 2% wood. Wood and propane heat are more common here than in most Texas 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 Bandera County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Bandera gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Uvalde County has the oldest housing nearby, with 44% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Bandera | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 10% | 20% | 191 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 22% | 46% | 212 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 45% | 26% | 25 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 29% | 13% | 13 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 20% | 17% | 76 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 12% | 6.5% | 57 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 2/yr | 3/yr | 126 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 7.1/yr | 7.8/yr | 127 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 21/yr | 27/yr | 142 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 140/yr | 129/yr | 82 of 232 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Texas county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Bandera County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in April, May 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