Polk County, TX Shrink-Swell Risk

What Polk County, TX's soil means for a foundation

Moderate

USDA's SSURGO data puts Polk County, TX's soil at "Moderate" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 3.37% across 70.5% of the county's surveyed land. Conventional foundations are the reasonable expectation here, with routine moisture-control practice rather than special engineering.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Polk County, TX 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 Polk County will actually do.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Polk County, TX 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.

Where this sits nationally

Nationally, Polk County, TX is the 928-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Texas alone it ranks 169 of 253. Polk County covers 1,057 square miles and counts 54,258 residents.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Ray County, MO and Itasca County, MN 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 Texas

Every county in Texas is on this site, including Lavaca County, TX and Bastrop County, TX. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.