Lauderdale County, AL Shrink-Swell Risk

What Lauderdale County, AL's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Lauderdale County, AL's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 1.48% across 96.5% of the county's surveyed land. That's the easiest starting point on this site's scale - a standard foundation is the reasonable default here, though any one lot can still differ.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Lauderdale County, AL 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 Lauderdale County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Lauderdale County, AL 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 Lauderdale County, AL compares

Nationally, Lauderdale County, AL is the 2,532-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Alabama alone it ranks 51 of 67. Lauderdale County, AL is 668 square miles with a population of 97,502.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Canadian County, OK and Dorchester County, MD 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 Alabama

Every county in Alabama is on this site, including Butler County, AL and Tuscaloosa County, AL. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.