Garfield County, CO Shrink-Swell Risk

What Garfield County, CO's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Garfield County, CO's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 2.17% across 77.6% 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 Garfield County, CO 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 Garfield County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Garfield County, CO 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 Garfield County, CO compares

Nationally, Garfield County, CO is the 1,824-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Colorado alone it ranks 37 of 63. Garfield County, CO is 2,947 square miles with a population of 63,167.

Before you act on this

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. La Plata County, CO and Covington County, AL 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 Colorado

Every county in Colorado is on this site, including Saguache County, CO and Larimer County, CO. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.