King George County, Virginia · King George
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves King George, Dahlgren and Passapatanzy. 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 8% of homes built before 1960 and about 9 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
August brings the most downpours to King George County, part of 8.6 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Sewage backups in King George County spike on heavy-rain days, about 8.6 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
King George County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.77 inches, and about 68 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
11% of occupied homes in King George County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Virginia county median of 11.9%.
With 84 muggy nights a year, mold in King George County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 10,679 homes and around 27,896 residents, King George County is 180 square miles of eastern Virginia. The county seat is King George, and Dahlgren, Passapatanzy and Dahlgren Center round out the largest towns. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 2000.
28/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate King George County ranks 93 of 95 Virginia counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where King George County ranks highest compared with other Virginia counties.
King George County is milder than most of Virginia, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. From 2015–2024 it averaged 9 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 72 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 71st of 95 counties.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 7 days below freezing (ending January 2018), and the low bottomed out near 0°F on January 6, 2018.
The freeze season here runs December to February, with January the coldest. If you travel then, leave the thermostat at 55°F or above and open sink cabinets on outside walls.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Nov 14 and the last spring freeze around Mar 28.
King George gets fewer downpours than most Virginia counties, but they still fill basements. About 8.6 days a year bring an inch or more (71st of 95), most often in August, out of 42.9 inches of total precipitation. On October 12, 2018, 3.77 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 5.43 inches (through July 24, 2018).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 68 times a year here. They're the main driver of ice dams and of water working its way through foundation cracks in late winter.
Housing
Roughly 26% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts King George among the newer housing stocks of Virginia's 95 counties.
51% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of Virginia. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps 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.
Beyond water
About 84 nights a year in King George County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (19th of 95 counties). August 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 expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In King George County it's 3% utility gas, 81% electric, 9% propane and 2% 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 King George County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Caroline and Stafford get more pipe-freeze nights than King George. Essex County has the oldest housing nearby, with 51% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | King George | Virginia median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 8.4% | 20% | 85 of 95 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 26% | 46% | 86 of 95 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 51% | 25% | 2 of 95 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 5% | 9.6% | 68 of 95 |
| Vacant homes | 5.1% | 15% | 85 of 95 |
| Wood or propane heat | 11% | 12% | 56 of 95 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 9/yr | 14/yr | 71 of 95 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 8.6/yr | 10/yr | 71 of 95 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 68/yr | 77/yr | 76 of 95 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 84/yr | 64/yr | 19 of 95 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Virginia county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in King George County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in June, August and December.
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