Wetzel County, West Virginia · New Martinsville
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves New Martinsville, Paden City and Hundred. 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 47% of homes built before 1960 and about 27 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 7.2 times a year here, most often in June. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
47% 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 Wetzel County, 2.87 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 Wetzel County heat mainly with wood or propane, close to the West Virginia county median of 10.1%.
With 26 muggy nights a year, mold in Wetzel County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 7,297 homes and around 14,078 residents, Wetzel County is 358 square miles of northern West Virginia. Besides New Martinsville, the county seat, the biggest communities are Paden City, Hundred and Pine Grove. The county's median home was built in 1962.
70/100 Water Damage Risk Index: High Wetzel County ranks 5 of 55 West Virginia counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Wetzel County ranks highest compared with other West Virginia counties.
Wetzel is on the colder side of West Virginia for pipes. From 2015–2024 it averaged 27 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 108 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 19th of 55 counties.
The longest cold spell was straight 13 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in January 2018. The coldest night reached about -9°F on February 20, 2015. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
The freeze season here runs November to March, 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 Oct 30 and the last spring freeze around Apr 24.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of West Virginia. Of roughly 49.8 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 7.2 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 16th of 55. February, April and June see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 2.87 inches, September 30, 2015. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.97 inches (through September 11, 2018).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 90 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 72% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Wetzel among the oldest housing stocks of West Virginia's 55 counties.
Before 1960 is when 47% of these homes went up. Galvanized supply lines and cast iron drains were standard then, and after 60-plus years both corrode and crack, often out of sight inside a wall or under a slab.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 16% 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
About 26 nights a year in Wetzel County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (29th of 55 counties). June is the wettest month. 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 expectMain heating fuel in Wetzel County's occupied homes: 70% utility gas, 20% electric, 4% propane and 5% 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 Wetzel County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Marshall gets more pipe-freeze nights than Wetzel. Marshall County has the oldest housing nearby, with 74% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Wetzel | West Virginia median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 47% | 31% | 6 of 55 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 72% | 55% | 6 of 55 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 9.3% | 17% | 52 of 55 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 16% | 16% | 29 of 55 |
| Vacant homes | 16% | 17% | 30 of 55 |
| Wood or propane heat | 9.6% | 10% | 29 of 55 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 27/yr | 25/yr | 19 of 55 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 7.2/yr | 6.8/yr | 16 of 55 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 90/yr | 89/yr | 18 of 55 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 26/yr | 27/yr | 29 of 55 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest West Virginia county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Wetzel County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in February, April 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