Freestone County, Texas · Fairfield
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Freestone County averages 2 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly midwinter, and 16% of its homes predate 1960.
May brings the most downpours to Freestone County, part of 12.2 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
16% 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 Freestone County, 6.2 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
10% of occupied homes in Freestone County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Texas county median of 6.5%.
About 139 nights a year here stay at 65°F or warmer, so basements and crawl spaces can grow mold even without a leak.
Local risk profile
With 9,123 homes and around 20,049 residents, Freestone County is 878 square miles of eastern Texas. The county seat is Fairfield, and Teague, Wortham and Kirvin round out the largest towns. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1987.
50/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Freestone County ranks 118 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Freestone County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
For frozen pipes, Freestone 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 23 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 126th of 232 counties.
The longest cold spell was straight 7 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about 1°F on February 16, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
With only about 23 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 1°F, on February 16, 2021.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Texas. About 12.2 days a year bring an inch or more (66th of 232), most often in May, out of 44.8 inches of total precipitation. On October 24, 2015, 6.2 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 10.07 inches (through October 25, 2015).
About 22 days a year swing from below freezing at night to above freezing by day. Those freeze-thaw cycles feed ice dams on roofs, open cracks in foundations and driveways, and stress pipes that are already marginal.
Housing
Roughly 40% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Freestone near the middle of Texas's 232 counties.
Since 2000 the county has added enough housing that 33% of homes are that new. Modern PEX and copper rarely fail on their own; the leaks come from connections, appliances and storms.
27% 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.
Here 24% 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.
The Census counted 22% of homes as vacant, above the Texas county median of 16.6%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
About 139 nights a year in Freestone County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (87th of 232 counties). May is the wettest month. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally 30 to 50%. Basements can pass 60% on their own in summer, so a dehumidifier matters even without a leak, and anything wet should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Freestone County's occupied homes: 15% utility gas, 75% electric, 8% propane and 1% wood. Most homes here heat with gas or electricity, so cooking and electrical faults are the likelier fire sources. Even a contained kitchen fire can send soot through the ductwork to every room.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Freestone County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Henderson and Navarro get more pipe-freeze nights than Freestone. Navarro County has the oldest housing nearby, with 47% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Freestone | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 16% | 20% | 145 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 40% | 46% | 153 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 33% | 26% | 67 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 24% | 13% | 28 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 22% | 17% | 60 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 9.6% | 6.5% | 72 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 2/yr | 3/yr | 126 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 12/yr | 7.8/yr | 66 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 22/yr | 27/yr | 135 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 139/yr | 129/yr | 87 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 Freestone 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