Owyhee County, ID Shrink-Swell Risk

What Owyhee County, ID's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Owyhee County, ID's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 2.98% across 56.1% of the county's surveyed land. Among the 3,144 counties on this site, that's the clean result: little shrink-swell movement, standard construction the likely outcome.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Owyhee County, ID 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 Owyhee County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Owyhee County, ID 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 Owyhee County, ID compares

Nationally, Owyhee County, ID is the 1,210-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Idaho alone it ranks 5 of 44. Owyhee County covers 7,668 square miles and counts 12,748 residents.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Essex County, MA and Grant County, ND 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 Idaho

Every county in Idaho is on this site, including Madison County, ID and Jerome County, ID. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.