Marathon County, Wisconsin · Wausau
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Wausau, Weston and Kronenwetter. 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.
Marathon County averages 86 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to April, and 31% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in September. Marathon County averages 6.2 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Marathon County spike on heavy-rain days, about 6.2 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 96 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
22% of occupied homes in Marathon County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Wisconsin county median of 32.9%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 5 times a year in Marathon County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Marathon County covers 1,545 square miles of central Wisconsin, with about 138,403 residents and 60,910 homes. The county seat is Wausau, and Weston, Kronenwetter and Rib Mountain round out the largest towns. Half the homes here were built before 1978, half after.
52/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Marathon County ranks 33 of 72 Wisconsin counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Marathon County ranks highest compared with other Wisconsin counties.
Marathon County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Wisconsin. It averaged 167 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 86 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 19th.
The longest cold spell was straight 35 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in March 2015. The coldest night reached about -29°F on January 31, 2019. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
The freeze season here runs November to April, with January the coldest. If you travel then, leave the thermostat at 55°F or above and open sink cabinets on outside walls.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 10 and end around May 9.
Rainfall is about average for Wisconsin. About 6.2 days a year bring an inch or more (39th of 72), most often in September, out of 36.4 inches of total precipitation. On June 18, 2018, 2.56 inches fell in a single day. The worst three-day stretch dropped 3.93 inches, ending June 18, 2018, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 96 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
54% of homes in Marathon County predate 1980, close to the Wisconsin county median of 54.1%, which ranks 43rd of Wisconsin's 72 counties.
The mix runs from 31% built before 1960 to 24% built since 2000, so older neighborhoods bring aging pipe while newer subdivisions bring failed appliance lines and water heaters.
22% 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
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 5 times a year here, below the Wisconsin county median of 11. 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 Marathon County it's 56% utility gas, 17% electric, 17% propane and 5% 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 Marathon County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Langlade, Lincoln and Taylor get more pipe-freeze nights than Marathon. Wood County has the oldest housing nearby, with 64% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Marathon | Wisconsin median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 31% | 31% | 39 of 72 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 54% | 54% | 43 of 72 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 24% | 21% | 22 of 72 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 2.5% | 4.8% | 59 of 72 |
| Vacant homes | 5% | 12% | 61 of 72 |
| Wood or propane heat | 22% | 33% | 50 of 72 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 86/yr | 73/yr | 19 of 72 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6.2/yr | 6.3/yr | 39 of 72 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 96/yr | 94/yr | 24 of 72 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 5/yr | 11/yr | 52 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 Marathon County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in May, July and September.
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