Upshur County, WV Shrink-Swell Risk

What Upshur County, WV's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Upshur County, WV's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 1.75% across 83.1% 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 Upshur County, WV 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 Upshur County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Upshur County, WV 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 Upshur County, WV compares

Nationally, Upshur County, WV is the 2,219-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within West Virginia alone it ranks 35 of 55. Upshur County, WV is 355 square miles with a population of 23,650.

Before you act on this

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Spencer County, IN and Rockingham County, NH 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 West Virginia

Every county in West Virginia is on this site, including Berkeley County, WV and Wetzel County, WV. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.