Wythe County, VA Shrink-Swell Risk

What Wythe County, VA's soil means for a foundation

Low

USDA's SSURGO data puts Wythe County, VA's soil at "Low" shrink-swell potential, an area-weighted linear extensibility of 2.88% across 62.7% 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 Wythe County, VA 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 Wythe County, VA 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 Wythe County, VA compares

Nationally, Wythe County, VA is the 1,275-most-constrained of 3,085 rated counties for shrink-swell soil. Within Virginia alone it ranks 14 of 114. Wythe County, VA is 462 square miles with a population of 28,100.

For contrast

Orleans Parish, LA carries this site's most-constrained reading. Rensselaer County, NY and Colorado County, TX 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 Virginia

Every county in Virginia is on this site, including Staunton city, VA and Bristol city, VA. The full underlying dataset is downloadable directly, one row per county.