Ballard County, KY Shrink-Swell Risk

What Ballard County, KY's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Ballard County, KY's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 1.75% across 94.3% of the county's surveyed land. That's the easiest starting point on this site's scale - a standard foundation is the reasonable default here, though any one lot can still differ.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Ballard County, KY at once, not any single address. A local geotechnical report, typically $1,000-$5,000 (around $2,700 typical), is the only way to know what one lot in Ballard County will actually do.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Ballard County, KY rating "Low", a geotechnical report is still worthwhile before a build, just less urgent than in a high-risk county. A geotechnical report runs $1,000-$5,000, typically around $2,700. Foundation repair, if a specific lot turns out to differ from the county average, runs $5,000-$15,000.

Where this sits nationally

Nationally, Ballard County, KY is the 2,222-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Kentucky alone it ranks 98 of 120. Ballard County, KY is 247 square miles with a population of 7,626.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Metcalfe County, KY and Sharkey County, MS are worth a look for comparison.

How this reading is built, and its real limits · Moisture management: the cheap fix that works on any soil

More of Kentucky

Every county in Kentucky is on this site, including Perry County, KY and Caldwell County, KY. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.