Guadalupe County, TX Shrink-Swell Risk
Guadalupe County, TX's soil, for shrink-swell risk
High
Guadalupe County, TX: USDA's soil survey rates 37.6% of the county "High" for shrink-swell potential (6.17% linear extensibility). This is enough movement to matter: a standard footing can hold up here, but usually only with real moisture management, not by default.
What Guadalupe County's reading doesn't cover
Two lots a mile apart in Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County.
What it costs to find out, versus to ignore it
Guadalupe County's soil reading is exactly the case where a report before construction, or before cracks widen, pays for itself. The report ($1,000-$5,000) is what tells you whether Guadalupe County's county-level reading applies to your lot; the repair ($5,000-$15,000) is what it costs if you skip that and find out from the cracks instead.
Where this sits nationally
Nationally, Guadalupe County, TX is the 109-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Texas alone it ranks 38 of 253. Guadalupe County, TX is 711 square miles with a population of 195,166.
See how another county compares
Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Sioux County, ND and Hillsborough County, FL are worth a look for comparison.
How this reading is built, and its real limits · The warning signs of expansive-clay damage, explained
More of Texas
Every county in Texas is on this site, including Lynn County, TX and Marion County, TX. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.