General Soils Testing Services

    Soils, Sediment & Subsurface, Inc. (S3) utilizes a Simco® Earthprobe 200® rig for the auger drilling. The Simco rig is mounted on a John Deere Pro Gator®, which is approximately five (5) feet wide and approximately ten (10) feet long. The unit is pulled to the site on a flat-bed trailer and the rig is unloaded in public access areas, thus minimizing disturbance to the site from travel. This allows the unit as a whole to access most areas, which is very useful when accessing wooded parcels or the yard areas of existing homes. S3 Soils also owns a Simco® 2400 trailer mounted rig, which was recently rebuilt and updated. This rig is utilized for Standard Penetration Testing (SPT) and for deeper borings, such as coastal piling homes or larger commercial buildings.

 

 

 

Investigations and Analysis:

     Slope Stability Analysis and Design 
     Retaining Wall Soils Analysis and Design 
     Residential Structural Observation Letters

Drill Rig Capabilities:

      Solid flight auger borings. 
      Hollow-stem auger borings (4-inch & 6-inch inside diameters). 
      Direct-push soil sampling with a five-foot long by 2-inch diameter heavy duty lined sampler. 
      Thin-walled (Shelby tube) soil sampling at discrete depths.

Field Testing Capabilities:

      Hand auger borings. 
      Seasonal high groundwater determination borings. 
      Calibrated Drive-tube soil compaction testing. 
      Dry and Wet Unit Weight of in-place soils (lbs/ft3). 
      Cased Falling-head piezometer testing for horizontal soil infiltration rates. 
      Double ring Infiltrometer testing for vertical soil infiltration rates. 
      State of Florida On-site Wastewater system soils evaluation (per Florida Dept. of Health Guidelines).
      State of Georgia Level 3 Soil Classification for On-site wastewater systems (per Georgia Dept. of Human Resources). 
      Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) soils testing to determine soil resistance to penetration load. 
      Standard Penetration Test (SPT) soils testing to determine soil resistance to penetration load. 

New Construction:

    S3 provides residential soil borings usually to a depth of 10 feet in order to provide a general indication of soils that are present at the tested areas. Typically, the borings investigate for the presence of pipe clay (fat clay or elastic silt), shallow groundwater, buried debris, organic material, or voids. S3 also provides Flood Elevation Determination Letters (Flood Letters) for house sites located within Leon County (outside of Tallahassee City Limits).

 Existing Structures:

    S3 provides soil testing and observation reports on structures that may have foundation problems such as differential settlement or movement resulting in the cracking or movement of the foundation, concrete block or the brick veneer. Typically, cracking and movement within the foundation is found to be directly related to the presence of buried organic material, buried anthropogenic material, fat clay or elastic silt (pipe clay), or loose fill soils which were not properly compacted during construction/installation. If the testing reveals issues related to the existing soils, S3 can provide a solution/design to offset the problematic soil conditions. S3 works with foundation system companies to provide the installation of the designed foundation system.

Drainage Studies 

    S3 provides drainage studies on projects ranging from individual berm, swale, or ditch studies for homes to localized basin studies for stormwater models and calculations. In most cases S3 can assist the Client with a design or concept plan to "offset" most any encountered soil conditions.