Fort Bend County, Texas · Richmond
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Sugar Land, Missouri City and Rosenberg. 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.
Fort Bend County averages 1 night a year at 20°F or colder, mostly midwinter, and 2% of its homes predate 1960.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 14.7 times a year here, most often in May. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
2% 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 Fort Bend County, 8.86 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
3% of occupied homes in Fort Bend 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 183 times a year in Fort Bend County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 893,767 people live in Fort Bend County, 862 square miles in southeast Texas, in roughly 305,633 homes. Richmond is the county seat; Sugar Land, Missouri City and Rosenberg are the next largest communities. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 2005.
42/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Fort Bend County ranks 177 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Fort Bend County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Fort Bend County is milder than most of Texas, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. From 2015–2024 it averaged 1 night a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 5 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 159th of 232 counties.
With only about 5 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 14°F, on February 16, 2021.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Texas. Of roughly 51.4 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 14.7 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 35th of 232. April, May and June see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 8.86 inches, August 27, 2017. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 20.28 inches (through August 28, 2017).
Housing
Roughly 13% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Fort Bend among the newer housing stocks of Texas's 232 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 61% of today's homes. In houses that new, the weak points are washing machine hoses, ice maker lines, water heaters and sump pumps rather than the pipes in the walls.
26% 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.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 183 times a year here, above the Texas county median of 129. 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 expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Fort Bend County it's 58% utility gas, 39% electric, 3% 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 Fort Bend County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Fort Bend gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. Wharton County has the oldest housing nearby, with 51% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Fort Bend | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 2.3% | 20% | 229 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 13% | 46% | 227 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 61% | 26% | 4 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 2.8% | 13% | 223 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 4.2% | 17% | 231 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 2.7% | 6.5% | 196 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 1/yr | 3/yr | 159 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 15/yr | 7.8/yr | 35 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 5/yr | 27/yr | 206 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 183/yr | 129/yr | 24 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 Fort Bend County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in April, May and June.
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