If you live in a housing society, you know that there are some rules that every property owner has to follow. Some of these rules are just standard procedures. You can fulfill them if you want to, but nobody will (hopefully) bother you if you didn’t. Soil testing report is one of those procedures.
When you purchase a plot and decide to built a house, housing society management will ask you to get a soil quality report. But before we talk about that, let’s discuss the types of plots, as far as soil quality is concerned.
Cutting and Filling
Generally speaking, there are two types of plots: Cutting and Filling.
House needs a flat surface to be built upon, but the earth surface is rarely flat. Sometimes it’s higher then the desired level, sometimes lower, and sometimes both. When a piece of land is ‘Cut’ to reduce it to a desired height, that plot is called cutting. Oppositely, if the land is ‘filled’ in order to make it reach a certain height, that plot is called filling.
Cutting has its advantages. If the plot is cutting, it means that the soil was naturally compact and it will act as a strong foundation for your house. Filling lands are not as compact as the cutting ones, and to make a strong foundation, these plots are dug deep and their Raft is made much deeper then the cutting ones.
How to know if your plot is Cutting or Filling? Well, you can always guess 😝, but the guess alone isn’t enough. You need a Soil Testing Report!
Soil testing report will tell you the ratio of soil content and quality. Cutting and Filling has different soil compositions, so soil testing report will help you predict if the plot is cutting or filling. This will help you decide how deep you should go to create the Raft. Strong foundation will make your home stable and ultimately, more resistant to natural disasters.
Okay, so how can I get the Soil Testing Report?
First stop, housing society’s head office. You can get contact details of a person who collects soil samples and send them to soil testing lab. Involving the society’s office is also important because before getting the soil sample, it’s necessary to mark the exact area of your plot. First the area of your plot is marked on land and then the samples are collected. You need to make sure that the sample are collected randomly and they cover the whole area (175 sq. yards in our case) of the plot.
Our Experience
We had a meeting with the soil testing guy and we agreed on time and date for the sample collection. On that day, we went to society’s head office and asked for our plot’s land marking. A guy who had all of our paperwork went with us and our plot was marked on land with its exact dimensions. Then the soil testing guys came with his equipment.
He dug 5 holes at random places in the plot and took samples. This whole process took around 2 hours. The soil testing guy told us that he will send these samples to laboratory and hopefully we’ll receive the report within 2-3 days.
We received the report after 3 days. According to report, our plot is a cutting (Horaaay!!). It doesn’t mean we won’t create a raft. As per our housing society’s bye-laws, we must create a raft.. If the land is filling the raft will be deeper, but in our case it’s a bit easier; just dig a few feet and create a raft. Easy peesy lemon squeezy!
The language of soil testing report was quite scientific, so you should better consult a builder that you trust.
(You ultimately need a builder if you want to build a house, right?).
He will read the report and tell you how deep the raft should be. So the foundation is strong enough to resist the natural disasters.
About our Progress!
How are we doing? Well, we have our plot marked on land and we also have the soil testing report in our hands. Next step will be to make a map and ultimately, get that map approved. As we already know all our requirements; converting those requirements into a rough sketch and getting an architect to make a map out of it won’t be that hard, right?
We’ll keep you posted on our progress…
