Santa Cruz County, CA Shrink-Swell Risk
Santa Cruz County, CA's soil, for shrink-swell risk
Low
Santa Cruz County, CA: USDA's soil survey rates 70.8% of the county "Low" for shrink-swell potential (2.82% linear extensibility). 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.
What Santa Cruz County's reading doesn't cover
Two lots a mile apart in Santa Cruz 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 Santa Cruz County, CA 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, Santa Cruz County, CA is the 1,330-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within California alone it ranks 30 of 58. Santa Cruz County covers 445 square miles and counts 262,406 residents.
Before you act on this
Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Wood County, WI and Casey 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 California
Every county in California is on this site, including Mariposa County, CA and Solano County, CA. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.