A typical site visit in Austin starts with a drill rig setting up on a cleared lot, the crew preparing sampling tools as the morning sun heats the limestone bedrock. We use hollow-stem augers to recover continuous soil cores, logging every change in color and texture. The samples head straight to our lab for moisture content and density tests, giving us the raw data needed to recommend footing depths and widths. This hands-on approach, paired with In-Situ like the plate load test, ensures our shallow foundation design matches the actual ground conditions found across the city's varied neighborhoods.
Expansive clays in South Austin can lift a concrete slab 4 inches in a wet spring if the shallow foundation design ignores plasticity index.