Karnes County, TX Shrink-Swell Risk

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

Moderate

USDA's SSURGO data puts Karnes County, TX's soil at "Moderate" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 5.63% across 28.8% 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 Karnes County, TX 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 Karnes County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Karnes 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, Karnes County, TX is the 199-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Texas alone it ranks 56 of 253. Karnes County, TX is 748 square miles with a population of 15,137.

Before you act on this

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. DeWitt County, TX and White County, TN 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 Van Zandt County, TX and Jeff Davis County, TX. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.