Letcher County, KY Shrink-Swell Risk

Letcher County's SSURGO shrink-swell reading

Low

In Letcher County, KY, 100% of the surveyed soil carries a "Low" shrink-swell rating, 1.22% linear extensibility on average. Among the 3,144 counties on this site, that's the clean result: little shrink-swell movement, standard construction the likely outcome.

Before you rely on this for one address

Letcher County's reading is an average across the whole county, not a promise about any one lot inside it. 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 Letcher County.

Budgeting for Letcher County, KY

Letcher County's soil reading points toward standard foundation practice as the likely outcome, not the exception. 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

Among the 3,085 rated counties on this site, Letcher County, KY ranks 2,760 most-constrained nationally, and 110 of 120 within Kentucky. Letcher County covers 338 square miles and counts 20,139 residents.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Sawyer County, WI and Nelson 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

Elsewhere in Kentucky

Every county in Kentucky is on this site, including Bracken County, KY and Bullitt County, KY. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.