Erie County, PA Shrink-Swell Risk
Erie County, PA's soil, for shrink-swell risk
Low
Erie County, PA: USDA's soil survey rates 96.6% of the county "Low" for shrink-swell potential (1.55% linear extensibility). That's as favorable a county-level reading as this dataset produces - standard foundation practice, pending one lot's own geotechnical report.
What Erie County's reading doesn't cover
Two lots a mile apart in Erie County can carry different soil, even though they share one countywide reading. 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 Erie County.
What it costs to find out, versus to ignore it
With Erie County, PA 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.
Where this sits nationally
Nationally, Erie County, PA is the 2,442-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Pennsylvania alone it ranks 32 of 67. Erie County, PA is 799 square miles with a population of 267,750.
See how another county compares
Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Lincoln County, MO and Roseau County, MN 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 Pennsylvania
Every county in Pennsylvania is on this site, including Tioga County, PA and Jefferson County, PA. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.