Walworth County, WI Shrink-Swell Risk

What Walworth County, WI's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Walworth County, WI's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 2.95% across 53.7% of the county's surveyed land. That's as favorable a county-level reading as this dataset produces - standard foundation practice, pending one lot's own geotechnical report.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Walworth County, WI 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 Walworth County, WI 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.

Walworth County's rank among Wisconsin counties

Nationally, Walworth County, WI is the 1,228-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Wisconsin alone it ranks 17 of 72. Walworth County, WI is 555 square miles with a population of 106,029.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Allegany County, NY and Calhoun County, IA 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 Wisconsin

Every county in Wisconsin is on this site, including Kenosha County, WI and Door County, WI. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.