Orange County, TX Shrink-Swell Risk
Orange County, TX's soil, for shrink-swell risk
High
Orange County, TX: USDA's soil survey rates 30.1% of the county "High" for shrink-swell potential (6.09% linear extensibility). Ground like this needs active moisture control to keep a conventional foundation from cracking - it's not automatic either way.
What Orange County's reading doesn't cover
Two lots a mile apart in Orange County can carry different soil, even though they share one countywide reading. 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 Orange County.
What it costs to find out, versus to ignore it
Orange County's soil reading is exactly the case where a report before construction, or before cracks widen, pays for itself. The report ($1,000-$5,000) is what tells you whether Orange County's county-level reading applies to your lot; the repair ($5,000-$15,000) is what it costs if you skip that and find out from the cracks instead.
Where this sits nationally
Nationally, Orange County, TX is the 117-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Texas alone it ranks 41 of 253. Orange County, TX is 334 square miles with a population of 86,115.
See how another county compares
Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Sibley County, MN and Duval County, FL are worth a look for comparison.
How this reading is built, and its real limits · The warning signs of expansive-clay damage, explained
More of Texas
Every county in Texas is on this site, including Comal County, TX and Dallas County, TX. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.