Brooks County, TX Shrink-Swell Risk

What Brooks County, TX's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Brooks County, TX's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 0.8% across 94.4% of the county's surveyed land. That's as favorable a county-level reading as this dataset produces - standard foundation practice, pending one lot's own geotechnical report.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Brooks County, TX 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 Brooks County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Brooks County, TX 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.

How Brooks County, TX compares

Nationally, Brooks County, TX is the 2,989-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Texas alone it ranks 253 of 253. The county spans 943 square miles, home to 6,740 people.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Pontotoc County, MS and Emmet County, MI 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 Texas

Every county in Texas is on this site, including Milam County, TX and Smith County, TX. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.