Brown County, KS Shrink-Swell Risk

What Brown County, KS's soil means for a foundation

Moderate

USDA's SSURGO data puts Brown County, KS's soil at "Moderate" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 5.99% across 66.4% of the county's surveyed land. Conventional foundations are the reasonable expectation here, with routine moisture-control practice rather than special engineering.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Brown County, KS 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 Brown County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Brown County, KS rating "Moderate", 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, Brown County, KS is the 133-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Kansas alone it ranks 9 of 105. Brown County, KS is 571 square miles with a population of 9,142.

Before you act on this

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Essex County, NJ and Lampasas County, TX 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 Kansas

Every county in Kansas is on this site, including Ness County, KS and Crawford County, KS. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.