Step 1 · Sources
Historical, geological, regulatory.
What we do, in detail
Four stages, with services proved and analysis accredited.
Program 01 · Before anyone digs
Desk studies
A desk study is the cheapest part of the process and it decides whether the intrusive work is targeted or scattered. Historical maps show what was on the site before, which is usually how contamination arrived. Done properly it sometimes concludes that no intrusive investigation is needed at all, which is an outcome we will report even though it is the smaller fee.
Step 2 · History
What the site used to be.
Step 3 · Model
A conceptual site model.
Step 4 · Advise
Including when to stop here.
Step 1 · Records
Utility plans obtained.
Step 2 · Trace
Scanned and marked on site.
Step 3 · Prove
Positions confirmed before drilling.
Step 4 · Install
Sealed so aquifers stay separate.
Program 02 · Services proved first
Test drilling and boring
Striking a gas main or a live cable is the serious risk in this work, so we obtain records, scan and trace, and prove positions before anything goes into the ground. If services cannot be satisfactorily located we stop rather than risk it, and that decision is not negotiable against a programme or a weather window.
Program 03 · Accredited analysis
Contamination assessment
Samples go to an independent UKAS-accredited laboratory operating within the relevant soil certification scheme, and we will tell you which laboratory. We are not an accredited testing laboratory ourselves and we do not imply otherwise — a consultancy claiming accreditation it does not hold is the thing that causes a report to be challenged.
Step 1 · Sample
At located, recorded positions.
Step 2 · Analyse
At an accredited laboratory.
Step 3 · Assess
Against the current framework.
Step 4 · Conclude
With the limitations stated.
Step 1 · The condition
What the authority actually asked.
Step 2 · Report
Data, assessment and conclusions.
Step 3 · Limits
Stated, not buried in an appendix.
Step 4 · Submit
Decision remains the authority's.
Program 04 · Limits written in
Reporting for planning
Every report says what it cannot tell you: an investigation characterises conditions at the points sampled on the dates sampled, and ground varies in between. We will not write a sentence that reads as certifying a site clean, because no investigation can do that and a developer relying on such a sentence is relying on nothing.
Got a site or a planning condition to deal with?
A free scoping conversation and a written quotation, with the scope set out.