Montgomery County, AL Shrink-Swell Risk

Montgomery County, AL's soil, for shrink-swell risk

Moderate

Montgomery County, AL: USDA's soil survey rates 46.6% of the county "Moderate" for shrink-swell potential (4.94% linear extensibility). Conventional foundations are the reasonable expectation here, with routine moisture-control practice rather than special engineering.

What Montgomery County's reading doesn't cover

Two lots a mile apart in Montgomery County can carry different soil, even though they share one countywide reading. The real answer for one lot is still a site-specific geotechnical report, running about $1,000-$5,000 (typically near $2,700).

What it costs to find out, versus to ignore it

With Montgomery County, AL 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, Montgomery County, AL is the 300-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Alabama alone it ranks 3 of 67. Montgomery County covers 785 square miles and counts 225,894 residents.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Rooks County, KS and San Patricio County, TX 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 Talladega County, AL and St. Clair County, AL. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.