What are foundation conditions like in Bixby, Oklahoma?

Reviewed by Preston · Updated 2026-11-11

In short: Bixby has more low shrink-swell ground than the other Tulsa-area cities compared, about 42% ¹, because much of it sits on loamy Arkansas River terraces and floodplain. Clay uplands on Dennis soil still cover about 12% ¹, and sandstone ridges bring shallow rock, so one Bixby neighborhood can behave very differently from the next.

How much of Bixby has expansive soil?

Bixby covers about 26 square miles ² across the Tulsa, Wagoner and Okmulgee county soil surveys ¹. About 30% of the city is in somewhat poorly or poorly drained soils ¹.

Which Bixby soils matter most for houses?

• Choska, the most common soil, is very deep and well drained, on low terraces of floodplains, formed in loamy alluvium of Pleistocene age ³.
• Okay is very deep and well drained, on broad, smooth high terraces, formed in loamy alluvium ⁴.
• Severn is very deep and well drained, formed in silty alluvium on level to gently undulating floodplains ⁵. Wynona is a silty floodplain soil that is somewhat poorly drained, floods occasionally and holds perched water about 2 feet down from November to April ⁶.
• Dennis is the clay upland soil, somewhat poorly drained with perched water 12 to 30 inches down in winter and spring ⁷.
• Hector is shallow and stony on sandstone ridges, with hard sandstone only 14 to 20 inches down ⁸.

What does river ground mean for Bixby foundations?

Floodplain and terrace soils are loose sediment rather than weathered rock, so they swell less but can be soft and deep. The Bixby and Broken Arrow parts of Wagoner County are covered by FEMA's Wagoner County flood insurance study, and the Tulsa County parts by the Tulsa County study ⁹. Along the Arkansas River in Tulsa County, shale lies about 5 to 10 feet below the river bottom but generally 20 to 30 feet below the banks ¹⁰. See soft soil consolidation and Quaternary alluvium and terraces.

Which soils cover Bixby?

ZIP codes in Bixby

ZIP 74008

Looking for a foundation company near Bixby?

Companies that serve Bixby can appear on the company map in the Homeowner Hub. Paid listings there are marked Sponsored; the library and the AI guide don't rank or recommend any of them.

Buying or selling a house in Bixby? Realtors who serve the area can be on the same map, also marked Sponsored, and for realtors covers the seller disclosure form, inspections and the sale timeline. Seeing cracks at home? Start with for homeowners.

How were these numbers measured?

We overlaid the city's current limits from the Census Bureau ² on the USDA soil survey's map units ¹ and added up the area of each soil. Where a map unit is a mix of soils, its area was split by the percentages the survey lists for its major soils, so the shares above leave out minor inclusions and do not add to 100%. A soil counts as high, moderate or low shrink-swell by the linear extensibility of its most expansive layer, the survey's measure of how much a soil changes length between wet and dry (6% or more is rated high). Water table, bedrock and flooding come from the survey's map-unit summaries: the shallowest water table in any month, the shallowest bedrock, and the most common flooding frequency. Bedrock here includes soft, weathered sandstone and shale that a pier can push through, so it is not the depth where piers stop. These are mapped averages for the whole city, not a test of any one lot. Fill, grading and the soil actually under a house can differ, which is why a site visit or soil boring still decides a repair.

Related

• Tulsa metro soils
• Creeks and flood history
• Shrink-swell and the active zone
• Compare Oklahoma cities