Wayne County, MS Shrink-Swell Risk

What Wayne County, MS's soil means for a foundation

Moderate

USDA's SSURGO data puts Wayne County, MS's soil at "Moderate" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 3.05% across 74.2% of the county's surveyed land. Conventional foundations are the reasonable expectation here, with routine moisture-control practice rather than special engineering.

This is a county figure, not a lot figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Wayne County, MS 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 Wayne County.

Report cost vs. repair cost

With Wayne County, MS rating "Moderate", 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.

Wayne County's rank among Mississippi counties

Nationally, Wayne County, MS is the 1,159-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Mississippi alone it ranks 28 of 82. Wayne County, MS is 811 square miles with a population of 19,749.

Before you act on this

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Williamson County, IL and Hernando County, FL 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 Mississippi

Every county in Mississippi is on this site, including Smith County, MS and Jefferson Davis County, MS. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.