Palm Beach County, FL Shrink-Swell Risk

What Palm Beach County, FL's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Palm Beach County, FL's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 0.49% across 99.7% 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 Palm Beach County, FL at once, not any single address. A local geotechnical report, typically $1,000-$5,000 (around $2,700 typical), is the only way to know what one lot in Palm Beach County will actually do.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Palm Beach County, FL 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.

Where this sits nationally

Nationally, Palm Beach County, FL is the 3,051-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Florida alone it ranks 58 of 66. Palm Beach County, FL is 1,964 square miles with a population of 1,582,055.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Canyon County, ID and Charles Mix County, SD 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 Florida

Every county in Florida is on this site, including Columbia County, FL and Glades County, FL. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.