What are foundation conditions like in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

Reviewed by Preston · Updated 2026-11-11

In short: About 29% of the land inside Tulsa's limits is mapped in soils rated high shrink-swell and 36% in soils that drain poorly, led by Dennis clay ¹. Those two traits together explain most Tulsa foundation movement: clay that swells and shrinks with the seasons, and water that perches on it each winter and spring. Creek corridors and sandstone hills add soft ground and shallow rock.

How much of Tulsa has expansive soil?

Tulsa is the second-largest area in this comparison at about 197 square miles ², and its soils come from five county soil surveys (Tulsa, Osage, Wagoner, Creek and Rogers) ¹. About 36% of the city is in soils the survey classes as somewhat poorly or poorly drained ¹, which in Tulsa usually means a seasonal perched water table sitting on clay or shale.

Which Tulsa soils matter most for houses?

• Dennis, the most common soil in the city, is very deep and somewhat poorly drained, with a perched water table 12 to 30 inches down from December through April ³. It drives the winter-heave and summer-drop cycle at slab edges; see perimeter wetting heave and edge drop in drought.
• Okemah has silt loam over a silty clay subsoil with slickensides, the polished faces left by repeated swelling, and water perched 2 to 3 feet down in winter and spring ⁴.
• Coweta is shallow, reaching soft sandstone interbedded with shale at 10 to 20 inches, and drains well ⁵. On these ridges the usual problems are fill and slope movement rather than clay swell.
• Radley, Choska and Wynona are floodplain and low-terrace soils formed in alluvium ⁶⁷⁸. Wynona floods occasionally and holds perched water about 2 feet down from November to April ⁸.

Urban land, about 14% of the city, is ground the survey maps as covered by buildings and pavement rather than classifying its soil ¹.

Where are Tulsa's flood-prone corridors?

The City of Tulsa's flooding history records repeated floods on Mingo, Joe, Haikey, Fry, Bird and Flat Rock creeks, peaking in the Memorial Day 1984 flood, when about 15 inches of rain fell overnight and nearly 7,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, mostly along Mingo Creek ⁹. Tulsa adopted a 100-year flood standard in 1971 and comprehensive floodplain rules in 1977 ⁹. Creek corridors matter for foundations because they hold deep, soft deposits: 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 Tulsa creeks and flood history.

How deep do piers go in Tulsa?

In 2025 installation records from Tulsa, steel push piers reached refusal at a median depth of about 12 feet, with most exterior piers between about 8 and 16 feet ¹¹. Depth changes sharply near creeks and the river, so a pier depth from one street does not carry to the next; see depth to rock in Tulsa and OKC.

What does Tulsa require for a repair permit?

Tulsa lets the owner, contractor, architect or owner's agent apply for a building permit; only electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits require licensed contractors ¹². Repair permits are applied for in person, and the plans examiner decides at submittal whether construction plans are needed when damage is extensive or structural ¹². See permits and licensing by city.

Which soils cover Tulsa?

ZIP codes in Tulsa

ZIP 74103, ZIP 74104, ZIP 74105, ZIP 74106, ZIP 74108, ZIP 74110, ZIP 74112, ZIP 74114, ZIP 74115, ZIP 74116, ZIP 74119, ZIP 74120, ZIP 74127, ZIP 74128, ZIP 74129, ZIP 74132, ZIP 74133, ZIP 74134, ZIP 74135, ZIP 74136, ZIP 74137, ZIP 74145, ZIP 74146, ZIP 74171

Looking for a foundation company near Tulsa?

Companies that serve Tulsa 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 Tulsa? 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
• Soil series in the Tulsa metro
• Bedrock in the Tulsa metro
• Shrink-swell and the active zone
• Compare Oklahoma cities