What is actually soil investigation?

Frankly speaking, it is a vast complicated subject but we will try to make it simple.

Food, clothing and house are the basic necessities of life. If we ask any common man what will be the ultimate dream he would like to accomplish, the answer will be surely to own his house in which he would invest his hard earned money.

Don’t you think that your dream house should have a solid foundation which would sustain for so many years to come?  The answer has to be positive and hence at this juncture, the word soil investigation comes into the picture which gives us a detailed analysis of the foundation – one of the most important elements of civil engineering structures.

Every structure whether it is a building, highway, tunnel, canal or dam is founded in the or on the surface of the earth.

It is therefore highly necessary to know

·       The load bearing capacity of the soil,

·       The pattern of stress distribution in the soil beneath the loaded area,

·       The probable settlement of the foundation,

·       Effect of the ground water,

·       Effect of the vibrations etc.

One gets a very clear picture of all the above mentioned factors by nothing else but by doing the soil investigation only.

What are the basic properties of soil? Would they affect the design and the safety of the structure? How should I determine the extent and the properties of the material to be used for the construction? How to determine the condition of the ground water? 

Well… the answer of all the doubts lies only in one word: Soil Investigation.