Berkeley County, WV Shrink-Swell Risk

What Berkeley County, WV's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Berkeley County, WV's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 2.23% across 73.5% 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 Berkeley County, WV at once, not any single address. A site-specific soil report, usually $1,000-$5,000, is what an engineer would actually pull before designing a foundation on a lot in Berkeley County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Berkeley County, WV 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, Berkeley County, WV is the 1,771-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within West Virginia alone it ranks 22 of 55. Berkeley County covers 321 square miles and counts 136,287 residents.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Crittenden County, KY and Chase County, KS 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 West Virginia

Every county in West Virginia is on this site, including Boone County, WV and Putnam County, WV. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.