Soil Testing Melbourne & Regional Victoria

Moisture Determination

Measures how much water is in your soil. Too wet or too dry can cause foundations to move, so builders need to know this before pouring concrete.

Particle Size Analysis

Works out whether your soil is mostly sand, silt, or clay by sieving it into different sizes. This tells engineers how the soil will behave under your building.

Atterberg Limits Testing

Tests how much clay soil swells when wet and shrinks when dry. High-plasticity soils can crack foundations, so this helps your engineer choose the right footing type.

Linear Shrinkage

Measures how much a soil sample physically shrinks as it dries out. This is key for working out your site classification and what type of slab or footings you need.

Emerson Class Number

Tests whether your soil breaks apart easily in water. Dispersive soils can erode quickly and cause problems for dams, embankments, and drainage.

Standard Compaction (Proctor)

Finds the ideal moisture level to compact soil to its strongest and densest state. Used during earthworks to make sure fill material is properly compacted under roads and buildings.

Unconfined Compression

Squeezes a soil sample until it fails to measure how strong it is. This helps engineers work out how much weight the ground can safely support.

California Bearing Ratio (CBR)

Tests how strong the soil is beneath a road or driveway. The result determines how thick the pavement layers need to be to handle traffic without sinking or cracking.

Permeability Testing

Measures how quickly water drains through your soil. Important for designing drainage systems, retaining walls, and understanding how groundwater moves around your site.

Triaxial Testing

An advanced test that measures soil strength under pressure from different directions. Used for designing retaining walls, slopes, and deep foundations on larger projects.

Consolidation Testing

Predicts how much and how fast soil will compress under the weight of a building over time. Helps engineers design foundations that won't cause your building to sink unevenly.

pH & Salinity Analysis

Checks if your soil is acidic, alkaline, or salty. Aggressive soils can corrode concrete and steel, so this test tells engineers whether special protective measures are needed for your foundations.