soil report request

[sandgary 0]

Hi, wonder anyone can recommend good and reasonable ( not too expensive) soil report test company for my intermediate terrace? Thk

[snoozee 98]

the companies who does the soil investigation need to have a scope of work as well. if you don't know what needs to be done, the companies will also give you a generic quotation which may or may not be what your PE required.

best is go and engage a QP first and then from there engage the soil investigation company. your PE will provide the scope of work that needs to be done for the soil investigation and the PE will also be the one to determine if the drilling/boring is sufficient.

 

[sandgary 0]

Hi Thk Snooze for your explaination, but we do hv QP needed as my Architect told me we dont need QP. 

[snoozee 98]

your architect is the QP.

QP can be either the architect or professional engineer. but each has their own scope of work and can't sign for each other in certain areas of work.

since you already have an architect, tell your architect to get the PE to provide the scope of work for soil investigation. also, how come you are looking for SI companies when your architect should be coordinating all these for you?

[sandgary 0]

16 hours ago, snoozee said:

your architect is the QP.

QP can be either the architect or professional engineer. but each has their own scope of work and can't sign for each other in certain areas of work.

since you already have an architect, tell your architect to get the PE to provide the scope of work for soil investigation. also, how come you are looking for SI companies when your architect should be coordinating all these for you?

Dear Snooze,

Because they.quote me the price is abit ex, thats y i thought of get,by my own.

[snoozee 98]

how expensive is expensive?

just to give you a guage, SI should cost between 2.5k to 3k (before GST) for a small landed house project for 1 single borehole. again depends on the scope which the PE determines.

yes you can get on your own. but the problem is who is going to provide the scope of work, determine where to drill and also make the decision of when to stop the boring/drilling. normally the SI contractor will check with the PE on whether the drilling is enough or not to stop as the PE will then based on what is given in the SI report to design the foundations of the house.

I can give you names of companies to contact but without a scope of work, it is pointless. I can tell you my real life experience that PE1 gave a scope of work to a SI company to quote and the quote was a 5 digit figure. I got another PE2 to give another scope or work and asked the same SI company to quote based on the scope given by PE2 and the price came back to be about 3K before GST.

in construction projects, the PE is as important as the architect when it comes to scoping the project. if the PE is used to handling huge projects, they may give a scope of work which is normal to them for big projects and thus the cost for SI will also go up. also after that, the PE may decide to go for piling for the job which would also lead to higher costs. however if a PE has much experience in handling small housing jobs, the scope of work for the SI company will correspond to what is needed for a small landed house. this PE may also design a foundation based on just footings instead of piling if the soil condition allows for footings. the cost difference between footings and piling will be tens of thousand of dollars.

if you feel the SI quoted is expensive, get the scope of work and then us that to ask other SI companies for quotations. also, ask your architect how experience is the PE in handling small housing jobs and if possible, maybe change another PE who is used to doing these small housing jobs.

to be honest, I think many PEs will just go for piling as foundation as this is something which would hardly go wrong regardless of what type of soil conditions. however this also leads to the house being over-engineered as well as brings up the overall construction cost.

[galliano 0]

On 3/6/2019 at 3:24 PM, snoozee said:

To be honest, I think many PEs will just go for piling as foundation as this is something which would hardly go wrong regardless of what type of soil conditions. however this also leads to the house being over-engineered as well as brings up the overall construction cost.

Fully agree with Snoozee (who has been incredibly helpful with my "issues" earlier).

Just to share few pointers from my personal experience for my minor A&A work:

1. The soil report is akin to a safe-proof step to make sure that the engineer's risk is minimal. And to be honest, most times, its a balance of their risk-taking appetite vs actual required.

2. Most times, the most safe-way is to do piling. Which is ridiculous as i have experience this ordeal months ago. None of my neighbors have done piling work despite my proposed minor A&A is much lesser than theirs, and the soil is definitely the same across the same estate.

3. Most important, there is no turning back once result of soil test is out. No engineer will dare to suggest alternative based on your soil test report. Unless of course, you pay more for them to "bend" their risk appetite.

Thus, always consult your QP/engineer 1st. Negotiate a best & worst case scenario before embarking on a soil test. At the same time, go ask your neighbors on what they had done previously. You could even get a free copy of their soil test report. No harm asking.

[VDGx 0]

Hi, if u need PE services, just PM me.

i can help u with it, thank you

[VDGx 0]

I dont think u can execute the SI on your own, SI is quite technical driven and the contractor will need u to advise location, number, depth of borehole, on top of that u need to also provide type and number of test needed on the soil.

Only a PE know tests needed as they need such info to design the foundation, so i have 0 idea why QP archi advise no PE needed