Kentucky / Madison County
Score 22 · moderate · #15 of 49 in KY
Crawl space moisture in Madison County, KY
Madison County scores moderate: no single wet-soil signal dominates its mapped acres. Where a seasonal water table is reported — 20% of acres — it averages 1.5 ft below grade, shallow enough to reach a typical crawl-space footing.
- 1Water table 1.5 ft
- 2Wet soils 7%
- 3Moisture score 22
- 4EPA radon zone 2
Reading the Madison County soil survey
The score of 22 combines four parts, each from the USDA survey: wet drainage classes contribute 9.7 points of 100 on their own scale, group D soils 54.1, a shallow water table 15.2, and flooding 3.4; the weights are on the methodology page. The dominant hydrologic group is C (41% 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 on the soils that report a water table — about 20% of Madison County's acres. Venting cannot fix that; it needs drainage — a perimeter drain to daylight or a sump — before any liner goes down.
Madison County against the rest of Kentucky
Madison County ranks 15 of 49 Kentucky counties, 7 points above the state median of 15. That places it in the middle range, nationally and for the state. Statewide, 6% of mapped soil is in the wet drainage classes; here it is 7%. After well drained, the next most common class is moderately well drained at 13%.
Flooding. 0.3% of acres with a flooding class are rated frequent; 4.8% of acres with a flooding class are rated occasional; 0.8% of acres with a flooding class are rated rare. Flood-prone soils are a minority here, concentrated along streams; the score mostly reflects what happens between floods.
What it means for a crawl space here
In a moderate county the soil record is mixed rather than uniformly wet, so conditions vary from lot to lot. Where the lot drains, the model-code default — a vented crawl space with 1 sq ft of net vent per 150 sq ft of floor, or 1 per 1500 with a Class I vapor retarder on the ground — is a reasonable starting point; where the sections above point to a shallow water table or flood-prone soil on your lot, plan as for an elevated county. Either way, check the site first: grading that falls away from the foundation, gutters and downspouts that discharge well clear of it, and a ground cover over bare earth. A wet crawl space in a moderate county points to one of those first.
Radon. EPA radon zone 2. The zone is a county-level prediction; EPA says elevated levels occur in every zone and every home should be tested.
Near Madison County by score
Sources: USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access (muaggatt: drclassdcd, hydgrpdcd, flodfreqdcd, pondfreqprs, wtdepannmin), acreage-weighted (survey area KY151; drainage covers 99% of 283,706 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.