Sussex County, DE Shrink-Swell Risk

What Sussex County, DE's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Sussex County, DE's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 0.76% 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 Sussex County, DE 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 Sussex County, DE 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 Sussex County, DE compares

Nationally, Sussex County, DE is the 3,002-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Delaware alone it ranks 3 of 3. Sussex County covers 936 square miles and counts 271,134 residents.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Dukes County, MA and Mahnomen County, MN 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 Delaware

Every county in Delaware is on this site, including Kent County, DE and New Castle County, DE. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.