Indiana / Noble County
Score 44 · elevated · #47 of 92 in IN
Crawl space moisture in Noble County, IN
Noble County scores elevated because several moderate signals stack up rather than one dominant one. Where a seasonal water table is reported — 71% of acres — it averages 1.2 ft below grade, shallow enough to reach a typical crawl-space footing.
- 1Water table 1.2 ft
- 2Wet soils 40%
- 3Moisture score 44
- 4EPA radon zone 1
Reading the Noble County soil survey
The score of 44 combines four parts, each from the USDA survey: wet drainage classes contribute 47.7 points of 100 on their own scale, group D soils 42.1, a shallow water table 58, and flooding 0.5; the weights are on the methodology page. The dominant hydrologic group is C (24% of acres): slow infiltration (clay layers).
A water table under two feet is the single most important number here. A crawl-space floor is usually 18 to 36 inches below the joists and often below outside grade, so in a wet season groundwater can stand at or above the crawl-space floor across much of Noble County. Venting cannot fix that; it needs drainage — a perimeter drain to daylight or a sump — before any liner goes down.
Noble County against the rest of Indiana
Noble County ranks 47 of 92 Indiana counties, level with the state median of 44. Wetter counties exist in Indiana, but the soil here still sits well above the national middle. Statewide, 47% of mapped soil is in the wet drainage classes; here it is 40%, below the state figure — the score here comes from a shallow water table rather than drainage class alone. After moderately well drained, the next most common class is well drained at 25%.
Flooding. No mapped soil in Noble County carries a flooding frequency above "none", so the score here is about water held in and under the soil rather than water arriving over it.
What it means for a crawl space here
In an elevated county the soil supplies more moisture than average, but a vented crawl space can work if the ground is covered: the code lets vent area drop from 1 sq ft per 150 to 1 per 1500 with a Class I vapor retarder on the ground, which is an admission of how much moisture comes from below. Grading, gutters and a ground cover usually decide whether a crawl space here stays dry before any decision about sealing it.
Radon. Noble County is in EPA radon zone 1, the highest predicted potential. A sealed crawl space and a radon system share most of their parts — the liner, the sealed seams, a fan — so if you are encapsulating, test for radon first and design both together. EPA itself says the zone map is not a reason to skip testing in zones 2 and 3.
Near Noble County by score
Sources: USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access (muaggatt: drclassdcd, hydgrpdcd, flodfreqdcd, pondfreqprs, wtdepannmin), acreage-weighted (survey area IN113; drainage covers 98% of 267,123 mapped acres); EPA Map of Radon Zones, county table (June 2024 JSON); IRC R408.3 Unvented crawl space, as adopted in S.C. Code Regs. 8-1221 (LII). Checked 2026-10-23.