Pleasants County, WV Shrink-Swell Risk
Pleasants County, WV's soil, for shrink-swell risk
Moderate
Pleasants County, WV: USDA's soil survey rates 84.6% of the county "Moderate" for shrink-swell potential (3.26% linear extensibility). Conventional foundations are the reasonable expectation here, with routine moisture-control practice rather than special engineering.
What Pleasants County's reading doesn't cover
Two lots a mile apart in Pleasants 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 Pleasants County, WV 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 Pleasants County, WV compares
Nationally, Pleasants County, WV is the 1,010-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within West Virginia alone it ranks 11 of 55. Pleasants County, WV is 130 square miles with a population of 7,358.
Before you act on this
Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Skagway Municipality, AK and Umatilla County, OR 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 West Virginia
Every county in West Virginia is on this site, including Lewis County, WV and Hardy County, WV. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.