Shoshone County, ID Shrink-Swell Risk
What Shoshone County, ID's soil means for a foundation
Low
USDA's SSURGO data puts Shoshone County, ID's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 1.46% across 99.9% 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 Shoshone County, ID 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 Shoshone County will actually do.
Report cost vs. repair cost
With Shoshone County, ID 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 Shoshone County, ID compares
Nationally, Shoshone County, ID is the 2,559-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Idaho alone it ranks 41 of 44. Shoshone County, ID is 2,637 square miles with a population of 14,074.
For contrast
Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Pike County, MS and Miami County, OH 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 Idaho
Every county in Idaho is on this site, including Ada County, ID and Bingham County, ID. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.