Six services, one measured bench

A geotechnical report is written for an engineer and often read by someone pricing a job, which is where mistakes begin. We take the report apart into the four things that actually move money: bearing capacity and foundation recommendations, groundwater observations, expansive or collapsible soil behavior, and the site preparation notes buried in the closing sections. Each item is restated in plain language and tied to the paragraph it came from, so a reader can check our summary against the original in seconds.

The review also looks at what the report does not say. Missing borings at a corner of the lot, a single test pit standing in for a whole slope, or a recommendation carried over from a nearby project are all noted. When the gap is significant, we recommend an additional investigation before any estimate is issued, because an estimate built on a thin report is a liability dressed as a number.

Deliverables are a short memo, a marked page list for the report, and a table of assumptions that will later appear in the estimate. The review is usually scheduled within a few working days of receiving the document set and the site plan.

Samples are only useful if their location is never in doubt. We coordinate drilling windows with the site owner and the rig crew, prepare a label scheme before the first tube leaves the ground, and keep the log book in step with the physical rack. Each core receives a plot number, a depth interval, a date and the initials of the handler, and those same marks appear on the photograph taken at the bench.

Where a project needs laboratory testing, we assemble the request, check that the tests match the questions in the report, and track results back to the sample they came from. On projects involving retained cuts, import fill or slab-on-grade construction, the sample set is arranged so a client can compare layers side by side instead of squinting at a single number.

The physical yard in Spanish Fork keeps trays for active projects and a shelf for reference cores. Because the samples stay on site, a question asked months after the report was issued can be answered by lifting the tray rather than commissioning another hole.

Takeoffs are measured plate by plate from the controlling drawing set. We begin with the earthwork: cut, fill, stripping depth, import and export volumes, and the disposal allowance that too many hand estimates leave out. Footings, stem walls, slabs, retaining structures and site utilities follow in the same sequence used by the crew that will build them.

Each quantity carries a source note pointing to the sheet and detail it was taken from. When two plates disagree, the conflict is listed rather than resolved silently, because a change order later costs far more than a question now. The output is a quantity sheet in a fixed column layout, so a second estimator can audit it without rebuilding the logic.

We work in both simple and complex building types, including hillside lots where terrace walls, drainage and access pads dominate the cost. Where the drawings are incomplete, the sheet marks the missing measurement rather than filling it with a default.

An estimate is built from measured quantities, local pricing and a written set of assumptions. We separate labour, equipment, materials, haul and disposal, and contingency into distinct lines so a client can see the effect of a single change without re-pricing the whole job. Unit rates are drawn from current regional pricing and recorded with the date they were taken, so the estimate can be refreshed honestly instead of returned to a stale figure.

Assumptions are written on their own page and numbered. Each number is referenced from the cost line it supports. If the assumption later proves wrong, the client can find every line it touched. Exclusions are treated the same way, because an excluded item is rarely harmless and should never be hidden in a footnote.

The finished document is short enough to read at a meeting and detailed enough to survive a comparison with a competitor bid. We do not add a markup for drama; the numbers are presented the way they were built.

A walkover turns a drawing into a place. We walk the lot with the current plan in hand and record access widths, overhead restrictions, utility locates, fence lines, slope, drainage patterns, stockpile locations and any soil staining that suggests a problem the report did not mention. Photographs are numbered against the plot grid and attached to the takeoff, so a later question about a retaining wall has a picture behind it.

Walk notes are issued the same day as the visit. Anything that would force a revision to the quantities is flagged in a short list at the top of the note rather than buried in the body. On occupied sites we coordinate arrival with the owner so that residents or staff are not caught off guard, and we keep to the areas agreed in advance.

Walkovers are available for single lots, multi-unit developments and small commercial sites within the region served from Spanish Fork.

Before a bid leaves the office, it is compared against the instruction to bidders, the addenda issued during the bid period, and the specification sections that quietly change the scope. We check that alternates and unit prices are entered where the form requires them, that the bid total reconciles with the estimate, and that no line has been carried forward from a previous project without a fresh source note.

The check produces a short risk noting for the person signing: items that remain open, assumptions that were not confirmed, and documents still missing from the bid package. It is deliberately not a rewrite of the estimate. Its job is to catch the last mistakes that a rushed bid period tends to create, and to give the signer a clear picture of what they are committing to.

This service is often used by contractors who build their own estimates but want an independent final pass before submission.