Harrison County, IA Shrink-Swell Risk

What Harrison County, IA's soil means for a foundation

Moderate

USDA's SSURGO data puts Harrison County, IA's soil at "Moderate" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 3.51% across 45.3% 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 Harrison County, IA 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 Harrison County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Harrison County, IA 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, Harrison County, IA is the 835-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Iowa alone it ranks 62 of 99. Harrison County, IA is 697 square miles with a population of 14,626.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Osceola County, FL and Wayne County, KY 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 Iowa

Every county in Iowa is on this site, including Wayne County, IA and Cerro Gordo County, IA. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.