Dukes County, MA Shrink-Swell Risk

What Dukes County, MA's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Dukes County, MA's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 0.84% across 97.5% 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 Dukes County, MA at once, not any single address. A local geotechnical report, typically $1,000-$5,000 (around $2,700 typical), is the only way to know what one lot in Dukes County will actually do.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Dukes County, MA 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 Dukes County, MA compares

Nationally, Dukes County, MA is the 2,968-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Massachusetts alone it ranks 3 of 14. Dukes County, MA is 103 square miles with a population of 21,061.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Osborne County, KS and Lawrence County, MS 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 Massachusetts

Every county in Massachusetts is on this site, including Franklin County, MA and Nantucket County, MA. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.