Portage County, WI Shrink-Swell Risk

What Portage County, WI's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Portage County, WI's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 0.86% across 97.2% 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 Portage County, WI 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 Portage County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Portage County, WI 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 Portage County, WI compares

Nationally, Portage County, WI is the 2,957-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Wisconsin alone it ranks 65 of 72. Portage County covers 801 square miles and counts 72,040 residents.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Jasper County, MS and Hickman County, KY 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 Wisconsin

Every county in Wisconsin is on this site, including Marathon County, WI and Juneau County, WI. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.