Minnesota: basement moisture and foundation risk by county

87 counties, ranked by our combined index. Highest combined risk is Clay County (86), lowest is Koochiching County (20). The worst soil for foundation cracks specifically is in Clay County.

Values from USDA NRCS SSURGO where available, otherwise our regional model — each county page states which. Methodology.

The physiographic regions inside Minnesota

State lines are political; soil follows geology. These are the distinct ground types inside Minnesota and why each behaves the way it does.

Des Moines Lobe and prairie potholes

The youngest glaciation in the Midwest, so the landscape has not yet developed a drainage network. Without artificial drainage much of it would be wetland. A house in a depression and a house 300 m away on a rise have genuinely different risk — this is where a county average tells you least.

57 counties: Anoka County, Benton County, Big Stone County, Blue Earth County, Brown County, Carver County, Chippewa County, Chisago County, Cottonwood County, Dakota County, Dodge County, Douglas County, Faribault County, Freeborn County, Goodhue County, Grant County, Hennepin County, Isanti County, Jackson County, Kanabec County, Kandiyohi County, Lac qui Parle County, Le Sueur County, Lincoln County, Lyon County, Martin County, McLeod County, Meeker County, Mille Lacs County, Morrison County, Mower County, Murray County, Nicollet County, Nobles County, Otter Tail County, Pine County, Pipestone County, Pope County, Ramsey County, Redwood County, Renville County, Rice County, Rock County, Scott County, Sherburne County, Sibley County, Stearns County, Steele County, Stevens County, Swift County, Todd County, Traverse County, Waseca County, Washington County, Watonwan County, Wright County, Yellow Medicine County

Glaciofluvial sand plains

Sand sheds water and there is very little clay, so volume-change cracking is rare. Where the outwash is thin over till or bedrock, though, a local perched water table forms and basements leak even in sand.

17 counties: Aitkin County, Becker County, Beltrami County, Carlton County, Cass County, Clearwater County, Cook County, Crow Wing County, Hubbard County, Itasca County, Koochiching County, Lake County, Lake of the Woods County, Mahnomen County, Roseau County, St. Louis County, Wadena County

Red River Valley (bed of glacial Lake Agassiz)

The combination that destroys foundations: no slope, impermeable clay, and extreme volume change. Foundation repair is a bigger trade here than waterproofing.

8 counties: Clay County, Kittson County, Marshall County, Norman County, Pennington County, Polk County, Red Lake County, Wilkin County

Driftless Area

The region the ice sheets missed. Slope, permeable loess, deep water table. Soil-driven basement risk is low here; the problems are surface runoff arriving from the hillside rather than groundwater pushing in.

5 counties: Fillmore County, Houston County, Olmsted County, Wabasha County, Winona County

Page data updated 2026-08-12