St. Joseph County, IN Shrink-Swell Risk

What St. Joseph County, IN's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts St. Joseph County, IN's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 2.05% across 79.5% 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 St. Joseph County, IN 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 St. Joseph County will actually do.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With St. Joseph County, IN 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, St. Joseph County, IN is the 1,934-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Indiana alone it ranks 81 of 90. The county spans 458 square miles, home to 273,744 people.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Madison County, FL and Curry County, OR 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 Indiana

Every county in Indiana is on this site, including Carroll County, IN and Bartholomew County, IN. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.