Ellis County, Texas · Waxahachie
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Waxahachie, Midlothian and Ennis. 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.
Ellis County averages 3 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly midwinter, and 8% of its homes predate 1960.
May brings the most downpours to Ellis County, part of 13.4 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
8% of homes here predate 1960, when clay and cast iron sewer laterals were standard. Roots and cracks in those lines are a common cause of backups.
In Ellis County, 6.89 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
5% of occupied homes in Ellis County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Texas county median of 6.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 138 times a year in Ellis County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 75,422 homes and around 213,160 residents, Ellis County is 936 square miles of eastern Texas. The county seat is Waxahachie, and Midlothian, Ennis and Glenn Heights round out the largest towns. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 2002.
49/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Ellis County ranks 126 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Ellis County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
For frozen pipes, Ellis County is a typical Texas county, which is still plenty. It averaged 20 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 3 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 94th.
On February 16, 2021 the low fell to about 0°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 8 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
With only about 20 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 0°F, on February 16, 2021.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Texas. The county gets about 44.1 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 13.4 days of an inch or more (52nd of 232). Those downpours cluster in April, May and October, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 6.89 inches on October 24, 2015. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 10.44 inches (through October 25, 2015).
Housing
22% of homes in Ellis County predate 1980, below the Texas county median of 45.8%, which ranks 214th of Texas's 232 counties.
54% 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.
The 1980s and 1990s account for 24% of the county's homes. If yours is from those decades, look under the sinks and at the water heater for gray plastic pipe stamped PB, which is polybutylene and leak-prone.
Here 8% of housing is manufactured homes. Check the skirting and the heat tape on the main water line every fall, because that one exposed line is what freezes.
Beyond water
Ellis County averages 138 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 Ellis County it's 19% utility gas, 75% electric, 5% propane and under 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 Ellis County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Ellis gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Navarro County has the oldest housing nearby, with 47% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Ellis | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 8.3% | 20% | 200 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 22% | 46% | 214 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 54% | 26% | 14 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 7.5% | 13% | 183 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 4.9% | 17% | 226 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 4.6% | 6.5% | 145 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 3/yr | 3/yr | 94 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 13/yr | 7.8/yr | 52 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 18/yr | 27/yr | 156 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 138/yr | 129/yr | 90 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 Ellis County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in April, May 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