Person County, NC Shrink-Swell Risk
Person County, NC's soil, for shrink-swell risk
Moderate
Person County, NC: USDA's soil survey rates 64.1% of the county "Moderate" for shrink-swell potential (3.04% linear extensibility). That's a middle reading: not the sharp swings that crack a foundation outright, but enough that grading and drainage are worth getting right.
What Person County's reading doesn't cover
Two lots a mile apart in Person 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 Person County.
What it costs to find out, versus to ignore it
With Person County, NC 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.
How Person County, NC compares
Nationally, Person County, NC is the 1,167-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within North Carolina alone it ranks 10 of 100. Person County covers 392 square miles and counts 40,143 residents.
See how another county compares
Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Daviess County, KY and Panola 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 North Carolina
Every county in North Carolina is on this site, including Rowan County, NC and Watauga County, NC. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.