Santa Fe County, NM Shrink-Swell Risk

What Santa Fe County, NM's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Santa Fe County, NM's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 2.53% across 63.1% 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 Santa Fe County, NM 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 Santa Fe County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Santa Fe County, NM 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 Santa Fe County, NM compares

Nationally, Santa Fe County, NM is the 1,535-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within New Mexico alone it ranks 22 of 32. Santa Fe County, NM is 1,910 square miles with a population of 157,765.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Ripley County, MO and Harrison County, IN 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 New Mexico

Every county in New Mexico is on this site, including Rio Arriba County, NM and De Baca County, NM. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.