Gillespie County, TX Shrink-Swell Risk

What Gillespie County, TX's soil means for a foundation

Moderate

USDA's SSURGO data puts Gillespie County, TX's soil at "Moderate" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 4.46% across 60.4% of the county's surveyed land. Conventional foundations are the reasonable expectation here, with routine moisture-control practice rather than special engineering.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Gillespie County, TX 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 Gillespie County will actually do.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Gillespie County, TX rating "Moderate", 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, Gillespie County, TX is the 394-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Texas alone it ranks 97 of 253. The county spans 1,058 square miles, home to 28,159 people.

Before you act on this

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. York County, VA and Yuma County, CO 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 Texas

Every county in Texas is on this site, including Cameron County, TX and Lynn County, TX. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.