Soil Testing

Chelmer Geotechnical Laboratories has been running since 2005 and was established to compliment the quality service we already provide to our clients in our sister company Chelmer Site Investigations, we are currently in the process of gaining UKAS accreditation status.

The standard and turnaround time of results are second to none, using highly trained technicians who have a long service of experience within this field.

All soils, site logs and test results are thoroughly checked by our geotechnical team before final issue.

The main soil testing services are described below:


Moisture Content
Moisture contents are required as a guide to the classification of natural soils and as a control in re-compacted soils. This is measured on samples used for most field and laboratory testing.

Atterberg Limits:

Liquid Limit
The liquid limit is the established moisture content at which a soil passes from the liquid state to the plastic state. This provides a means of classifying soil when the plastic limit is known.

Plastic Limit and Plasticity Index
The plastic limit is the established moisture content at which a soil becomes too dry to be plastic. This is used with the liquid limit to determine the plasticity index which when plotted against the liquid limit provides a means of classifying cohesive soils.

Soil Suction (Filter Paper Method)
The filter paper method of soil suction determination is to establish the state of desiccation in clay soil profiles.

Sulphates Content of Soil and Water including PH
This is to determine the sulphate content and PH value of both soil and groundwater. This test is commonly used for Pile Design/Foundation Design as a guide to using Sulphate resistant cement within the design.

Particle Size Distribution
There are two methods of sieving (wet and dry sieving). Wet sieving is the definitive method applicable to essentially non-cohesive soils. Dry sieving is suitable only for soil containing insignificant quantities of silt and clay.

Mass Loss on Ignition
The mass logs on ignition is related to the organic content of certain soils.

CBR (California Bearing Ratio)
The principle is to establish the relationship between force and penetration when a cylindrical plunger of a standard cross-sectional area is made to penetrate the soil at a given rate. At certain values of penetration the ratio of the applied force to a standard force, expressed as a percentage, is defined as the California Bearing Ratio.

Triaxials
This is the determination of the undrained strength of a specimen of cohesive soil when it is subjected to a constant confining pressure and to strain controlled axial loading, when no change in total moisture content is allowed. Tests are usually carried out on a set of similar specimens, subjected to different confining pressures.

A Schedule of Rates and more soil testing methods are available upon request


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