Mississippi / Madison County
Score 40 · elevated · #28 of 82 in MS
Crawl space moisture in Madison County, MS
Madison County scores elevated because several moderate signals stack up rather than one dominant one. Where a seasonal water table is reported — 93% of acres — it averages 1.8 ft below grade, shallow enough to reach a typical crawl-space footing.
- 1Water table 1.8 ft
- 2Wet soils 7%
- 3Moisture score 40
- 4EPA radon zone 3
Reading the Madison County soil survey
The score of 40 combines four parts, each from the USDA survey: wet drainage classes contribute 26.9 points of 100 on their own scale, group D soils 39.9, a shallow water table 68, and flooding 22.5; the weights are on the methodology page. The dominant hydrologic group is C/D (39% of acres): D when undrained, C when drained.
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 Madison County. 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 Mississippi
Madison County ranks 28 of 82 Mississippi counties, 5 points above the state median of 35. Wetter counties exist in Mississippi, but the soil here still sits well above the national middle. Statewide, 35% of mapped soil is in the wet drainage classes; here it is 7%, 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 27%.
Flooding. 7.9% of acres with a flooding class are rated frequent; 24.3% of acres with a flooding class are rated occasional. That is a large flood-prone share; a crawl space in the floodplain needs flood vents under most local floodplain ordinances, which is a separate rule from R408 and can rule out a fully sealed design.
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. EPA radon zone 3. 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 MS089; drainage covers 97% of 474,700 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.