Nevada / Douglas County
Score 22 · moderate · #4 of 18 in NV
Crawl space moisture in Douglas County, NV
58% of Douglas County's soil falls in hydrologic group D or a dual D group: clays and high water tables that shed water slowly. Where a seasonal water table is reported — 12% of acres — it averages 2.8 ft below grade.
- 1Water table 2.8 ft
- 2Wet soils 9%
- 3Moisture score 22
- 4EPA radon zone 1
Reading the Douglas County soil survey
The score of 22 combines four parts, each from the USDA survey: wet drainage classes contribute 8.8 points of 100 on their own scale, group D soils 65.6, a shallow water table 7, and flooding 6.5; the weights are on the methodology page. The dominant hydrologic group is D (56% of acres): very slow infiltration, high runoff (clays, high water table).
At 2.8 ft the seasonal water table is usually below a crawl-space floor, but the 12% of acres that report one are by definition the wettest parts of the county; on those lots, a wet spring can bring water close to the footings.
Douglas County against the rest of Nevada
Douglas County ranks 4 of 18 Nevada counties, 1 points above the state median of 21. That puts it in the wettest quarter of the state. Statewide, 6% of mapped soil is in the wet drainage classes; here it is 9%. After well drained, the next most common class is poorly drained at 5%.
Flooding. 0.6% of acres with a flooding class are rated frequent; 6.1% of acres with a flooding class are rated occasional; 11% of acres with a flooding class are rated rare; 0.5% of acres with a flooding class are rated very rare. 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 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. Douglas 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 Douglas County by score
Sources: USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access (muaggatt: drclassdcd, hydgrpdcd, flodfreqdcd, pondfreqprs, wtdepannmin), acreage-weighted (survey area NV773; drainage covers 98% of 435,199 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.