Manitowoc County, Wisconsin · Manitowoc
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Manitowoc, Two Rivers and Kiel. 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.
Pipes freeze in Manitowoc County on about 62 nights a year, mostly November to April. Older homes, 46% of the stock here, are most at risk.
June brings the most downpours to Manitowoc County, part of 6.1 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Sewage backups in Manitowoc County spike on heavy-rain days, about 6.1 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Manitowoc County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.56 inches, and about 92 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
15% of occupied homes in Manitowoc County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Wisconsin county median of 32.9%.
With 11 muggy nights a year, mold in Manitowoc County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Manitowoc County covers 589 square miles of eastern Wisconsin, with about 81,406 residents and 38,084 homes. Manitowoc is the county seat; Two Rivers, Kiel and Cleveland are the next largest communities. The county's median home was built in 1964.
53/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Manitowoc County ranks 32 of 72 Wisconsin counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Manitowoc County ranks highest compared with other Wisconsin counties.
Manitowoc County is milder than most of Wisconsin, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. It averaged 144 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 62 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 72 Wisconsin counties that's 58th.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 27 days below freezing (ending March 2015), and the low bottomed out near -23°F on January 31, 2019.
Most freezing nights fall from November to April, peaking in January. Disconnect garden hoses and shut off outdoor spigots before the first hard frost, and keep the heat at 55°F or higher if you'll be away.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 19 and the last spring freeze around May 7.
Rainfall is about average for Wisconsin. Of roughly 35.5 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 6.1 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 41st of 72. May, June and August see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.56 inches, July 15, 2021. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 5.57 inches (through August 29, 2018).
About 92 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
69% of homes in Manitowoc County predate 1980, above the Wisconsin county median of 54.1%, which ranks 2nd of Wisconsin's 72 counties.
In Manitowoc County 46% of homes are older than 1960. If yours is one of them and the plumbing has never been replaced, expect galvanized steel supply pipe and cast iron drain lines, the two materials most likely to fail quietly.
Beyond water
About 11 nights a year in Manitowoc County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (33rd of 72 counties). August 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 expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Manitowoc County it's 74% utility gas, 9% electric, 12% propane and 3% 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 Manitowoc County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Brown, Calumet and Kewaunee get more pipe-freeze nights than Manitowoc. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Manitowoc | Wisconsin median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 46% | 31% | 2 of 72 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 69% | 54% | 2 of 72 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 13% | 21% | 71 of 72 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 3.3% | 4.8% | 53 of 72 |
| Vacant homes | 7.6% | 12% | 46 of 72 |
| Wood or propane heat | 15% | 33% | 55 of 72 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 62/yr | 73/yr | 58 of 72 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6.1/yr | 6.3/yr | 41 of 72 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 92/yr | 94/yr | 44 of 72 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 11/yr | 11/yr | 33 of 72 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Wisconsin county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Manitowoc County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in May, June and August.
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