Comal County, Texas · New Braunfels
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves New Braunfels, Canyon Lake and Fair Oaks Ranch. 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 6% of homes built before 1960 and about 1 hard-freeze night a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 7.4 times a year here, most often in May. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Comal County gets about 7.4 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Comal County, 5.49 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
6% of occupied homes in Comal County heat mainly with wood or propane, close to the Texas county median of 6.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 154 times a year in Comal County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 183,826 people live in Comal County, 560 square miles in central Texas, in roughly 77,961 homes. Besides New Braunfels, the county seat, the biggest communities are Canyon Lake, Fair Oaks Ranch and Bulverde. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 2005.
31/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Comal County ranks 225 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Comal County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for Texas, and pipes still freeze. It averaged 13 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 1 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 232 Texas counties that's 159th.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 3 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near 8°F on February 16, 2021.
Hard freezes are uncommon here, about 13 nights a year at or below 32°F, and that's exactly why they do damage: pipes in attics, exterior walls and slab-edge plumbing are rarely insulated. The coldest night in the record was about 8°F on February 16, 2021.
Rainfall is about average for Texas. The county gets about 31.1 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 7.4 days of an inch or more (124th of 232). Those downpours cluster in May, September and October, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 5.49 inches on October 30, 2015. The worst three-day stretch dropped 7.09 inches, ending November 1, 2015, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Housing
17% of homes in Comal County predate 1980, below the Texas county median of 45.8%, which ranks 223rd of Texas's 232 counties.
Since 2000 the county has added enough housing that 60% of homes are that new. Modern PEX and copper rarely fail on their own; the leaks come from connections, appliances and storms.
23% 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.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 8% 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 154 nights a year in Comal County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (62nd of 232 counties). May is the wettest month. 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, Comal County homes break down as 17% utility gas, 76% electric, 6% propane and under 1% wood. Fires here are likelier to start in the kitchen or the wiring than in the furnace. After any fire, keep the HVAC off until ducts are checked, or soot will travel through the house.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Comal County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Blanco and Kendall get more pipe-freeze nights than Comal. Bexar County has the oldest housing nearby, with 36% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Comal | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 5.8% | 20% | 220 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 17% | 46% | 223 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 60% | 26% | 7 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 7.5% | 13% | 183 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 8.5% | 17% | 200 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 6% | 6.5% | 128 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 1/yr | 3/yr | 159 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 7.4/yr | 7.8/yr | 124 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 13/yr | 27/yr | 171 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 154/yr | 129/yr | 62 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 Comal County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in May, September and October.
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