Suffolk County, MA Shrink-Swell Risk

What Suffolk County, MA's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Suffolk County, MA's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 0.65% 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 Suffolk County, MA at once, not any single address. The real answer for one lot is still a site-specific geotechnical report, running about $1,000-$5,000 (typically near $2,700).

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Suffolk County, MA 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 Suffolk County, MA compares

Nationally, Suffolk County, MA is the 3,028-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Massachusetts alone it ranks 9 of 14. Suffolk County covers 58 square miles and counts 793,144 residents.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Crosby County, TX and Washington County, NC 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 Massachusetts

Every county in Massachusetts is on this site, including Norfolk County, MA and Bristol County, MA. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.