Chilton County, AL Shrink-Swell Risk

What Chilton County, AL's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Chilton County, AL's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 1.79% across 78.4% 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 Chilton County, AL 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 Chilton County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Chilton County, AL 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.

Chilton County's rank among Alabama counties

Nationally, Chilton County, AL is the 2,178-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Alabama alone it ranks 39 of 67. Chilton County, AL is 693 square miles with a population of 47,262.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Meeker County, MN and Essex County, NJ 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 Alabama

Every county in Alabama is on this site, including Barbour County, AL and Wilcox County, AL. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.