Columbia County, PA Shrink-Swell Risk

Columbia County's SSURGO shrink-swell reading

Low

In Columbia County, PA, 96.1% of the surveyed soil carries a "Low" shrink-swell rating, 1.24% linear extensibility on average. That's as favorable a county-level reading as this dataset produces - standard foundation practice, pending one lot's own geotechnical report.

Before you rely on this for one address

Columbia County's reading is an average across the whole county, not a promise about any one lot inside it. 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 Columbia County.

Budgeting for Columbia County, PA

Columbia County's soil reading points toward standard foundation practice as the likely outcome, not the exception. 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 Columbia County, PA compares

Among the 3,085 rated counties on this site, Columbia County, PA ranks 2,740 most-constrained nationally, and 55 of 67 within Pennsylvania. Columbia County, PA is 483 square miles with a population of 66,012.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Walworth County, SD and Harlan County, NE 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

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania

Every county in Pennsylvania is on this site, including Fayette County, PA and Mercer County, PA. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.