HomeShrinkSwellCheck alternatives
ShrinkSwellCheck alternatives
Foundation Soils · checked October 6, 2026
ShrinkSwellCheck is a county lookup for expansive clay risk, built on USDA linear extensibility. If it does not fit what you are checking, these are the 5 other lookups we read on October 6, 2026. Foundation Soils is one of them and earns referral fees, so it is listed with the same facts as the rest and its limits stated.
Pick by the question: Foundation Soils, when you want expansive clay, water table, drought and flood losses for a county, city or ZIP on one page; FoundationRepairData, when you want a county shrink-swell score next to repair price ranges; Web Soil Survey, when you need soil map units for one lot or a custom area; SoilWeb, when you want the soil map unit at a point, with profile sketches; SoilByCounty, when you want county sand, silt, clay and pH, or a 3-county comparison.
ShrinkSwellCheck: what it does
| What it covers | 3,144 US counties, sorted into four bands: 41 Very High, 90 High, 1,067 Moderate, 1,887 Low |
|---|---|
| You search by | County, or "just type your ZIP" |
| Soil measures shown | Linear extensibility of the dominant soil, depth-weighted over the top 100 cm and area-weighted by map unit acreage, from SSURGO |
| Water table or basement wetness | Not on the pages read |
| Drought | Not on the pages read |
| Flood losses | Not on the pages read |
| Price | Free, per its home page |
| One lot or one place | County level. Its page says it is "not a reading for one address" |
| How it says it is funded | Sponsored or affiliate links are disclosed where they appear, per its About page |
Stay with ShrinkSwellCheck when
- You want one clean expansive clay reading per county in four bands, and nothing else on the page.
- You want the data table it publishes, one row per county.
The alternatives
| Site | Better pick when | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Soils | You want expansive clay, water table, drought and flood losses for a county, city or ZIP on one page | Free to read. No account, no form |
| FoundationRepairData | You want a county shrink-swell score next to repair price ranges | Free. It also lists repair cost ranges by method ("2026 costs") |
| Web Soil Survey (vs) | You need soil map units for one lot or a custom area | Its shopping cart is labeled "Free"; custom reports print or download |
| SoilWeb | You want the soil map unit at a point, with profile sketches | No price on the page read |
| SoilByCounty (vs) | You want county sand, silt, clay and pH, or a 3-county comparison | Free USDA soil reports, per its home page |
Foundation Soils limits: county, city and ZIP level only; a share of land, never a depth in feet; USDA data for one lot can differ.
Read October 6, 2026 from each site's own pages, linked above. "Not on the pages read" means the page we read did not show it. See also best websites to look up the soil under a house and what soil is my house built on.