Essex County, MA Shrink-Swell Risk

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

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Essex County, MA's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 0.71% across 95.5% of the county's surveyed land. Among the 3,144 counties on this site, that's the clean result: little shrink-swell movement, standard construction the likely outcome.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Essex County, MA at once, not any single address. The real answer for one lot is still a site-specific geotechnical report, running about $1,000-$5,000 (typically near $2,700).

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Essex 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 Essex County, MA compares

Nationally, Essex County, MA is the 3,013-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Massachusetts alone it ranks 7 of 14. Essex County covers 493 square miles and counts 823,938 residents.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Walla Walla County, WA and Stephenson County, IL 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 Norfolk County, MA and Bristol County, MA. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.