About SoilLookup.com
SoilLookup.com is a free tool for looking up soil information for any address in the United States. Type in an address — or use your current location — and get a plain-English report on drainage, soil texture, gardening pH, and suitability for septic systems and small buildings, along with the official USDA classification of the soil under your feet.
Where the Data Comes From
Every soil report on this site is built from public data published by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). NRCS soil scientists have spent decades mapping the soils of the United States, and they make that data available through the Web Soil Survey, the Soil Data Access API, and the Official Soil Series Descriptions.
Those sources are authoritative but not always easy to navigate if you're not a soil scientist. SoilLookup queries the same NRCS data and renders it as a single readable page: drainage class, hydrologic group, horizon-by-horizon texture and pH, taxonomic order, and the official series description. Addresses are resolved to coordinates using the Nominatim geocoder built on OpenStreetMap.
What You Can Do Here
The main feature is the address lookup on the home page. From a single search you'll see a soil report with drainage, septic and foundation suitability, gardening pH and recommended plants, and a breakdown of soil horizons by depth. Every report has a stable shareable URL under /report/ and can be printed or saved for later.
Beyond the address tool, the site has editorial pages designed to help non-specialists make sense of soil data:
— Soil Taxonomy Guide — the twelve soil orders, explained.
— Soil Glossary — drainage classes, hydrologic groups, perc tests, horizons, and more.
— Best Soil for Gardening — states and counties ranked by share of well-drained soils.
— Soil Drainage Rankings — the same data viewed through a drainage lens.
— Compare Properties — side-by-side soil reports for two addresses.
— Browse by State — county-level soil pages for every survey area in the country.
Who Runs This Site
SoilLookup.com is an independent project. It is not affiliated with the USDA, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or any government agency. Our role is to make existing public data easier to find and easier to read — not to produce new soil science.
The site is built and maintained by a small independent team that runs a portfolio of free public-data sites in the United States. We rely on display advertising and affiliate links to cover hosting, data infrastructure, and continued development. No personal data is sold, and there is no paywall or login.
Important Limitations
NRCS soil surveys are mapped at the survey-area scale and describe the typical soil for a map unit. Conditions at a specific point on your property can differ from the map unit average, especially on smaller parcels or sites that have been graded, filled, or disturbed.
The reports here are intended for general planning, gardening, and educational use. They do not replace on-site soil borings, percolation tests, or engineering evaluations. For permitting, construction, septic system design, or any decision with significant cost or safety implications, hire a licensed soil scientist, geotechnical engineer, or sanitarian in your state.
Privacy and Advertising
SoilLookup uses Google Analytics to measure aggregate site traffic and may display advertisements served by third-party advertising networks. These networks may use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads. You can opt out of personalized advertising through Google's Ads Settings or aboutads.info. We do not require accounts and do not log individual search queries.
Contact
Questions, corrections, data issues, or partnership inquiries: contact@soillookup.com.
If you run a real estate, gardening, homesteading, or property-services site and would like to embed soil summaries, see the home page for the embed widget snippet or get in touch using the address above.