Hardin County, Texas · Kountze
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Lumberton, Silsbee and Kountze. 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 11% 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 19.5 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 Hardin County gets about 19.5 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Hardin County, 9.67 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 Hardin County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Texas county median of 6.5%.
About 158 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 25,100 homes and around 57,642 residents, Hardin County is 891 square miles of eastern Texas. Kountze is the county seat; Lumberton, Silsbee and Sour Lake are the next largest communities. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1994.
49/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Hardin County ranks 127 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Hardin County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for Texas, and pipes still freeze. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 1 night a year at or below 20°F (159th of 232) and 12 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Hard freezes are uncommon here, about 12 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 11°F on February 16, 2021.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Texas. The county gets about 67.3 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 19.5 days of an inch or more (1st of 232). Those downpours cluster in January, April and May, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 9.67 inches on August 28, 2017. The worst three-day stretch dropped 24.78 inches, ending August 30, 2017, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Housing
33% of homes in Hardin County predate 1980, below the Texas county median of 45.8%, which ranks 183rd of Texas's 232 counties.
41% 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.
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.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 22% 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
Hardin County averages 158 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Hardin County homes break down as 16% utility gas, 77% electric, 4% propane and 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 Hardin County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Hardin gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Jefferson County has the oldest housing nearby, with 54% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Hardin | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 11% | 20% | 184 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 33% | 46% | 183 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 41% | 26% | 38 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 22% | 13% | 36 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 12% | 17% | 175 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 5.6% | 6.5% | 136 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 1/yr | 3/yr | 159 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 20/yr | 7.8/yr | 1 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 12/yr | 27/yr | 177 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 158/yr | 129/yr | 54 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 Hardin County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in January, April and May.
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