Wake County, NC Shrink-Swell Risk

Wake County's SSURGO shrink-swell reading

Low

In Wake County, NC, 85.6% of the surveyed soil carries a "Low" shrink-swell rating, 1.71% linear extensibility on average. Among the 3,144 counties on this site, that's the clean result: little shrink-swell movement, standard construction the likely outcome.

Before you rely on this for one address

Wake County's reading is an average across the whole county, not a promise about any one lot inside it. 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 Wake County.

Budgeting for Wake County, NC

Wake County's soil reading points toward standard foundation practice as the likely outcome, not the exception. 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 Wake County, NC compares

Among the 3,085 rated counties on this site, Wake County, NC ranks 2,266 most-constrained nationally, and 48 of 100 within North Carolina. Wake County, NC is 835 square miles with a population of 1,232,444.

See how another county compares

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Allen County, IN and Hot Springs County, WY 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

Elsewhere in North Carolina

Every county in North Carolina is on this site, including Nash County, NC and Hyde County, NC. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.