Much though it would make the lives of developers easier, soil conditions aren’t always perfect. Often, in fact, the properties of in-situ soil (in various ways) is so poor that it’s not of an adequate quality to develop or build upon. In cases like these, a ground improvement technique known as soil mixing (also known as soil stabilisation) might well be needed. The team here at Borehole Solutions, providers of various geotechnical and remediation services, wanted to explain the process in a little more detail.
How Does Soil Mixing Improve Soil Quality?
For mechanically and structurally weak soils, the best way to improve their strength is to add specific binding agents so that their properties become more solid and stone-like. In-situ soil is mixed with cement (or something similar) to create something inventively known as soil-cement… The resulting soil-cement mixture is strong and durable and makes for much better ground conditions in terms of any potential developments, further down the line.
Everything from flood-prone soils to contaminated land can be helped through soil mixing processes. Brownfield sites are particularly common in being treated with soil mixing – as are peat fields – we recently carried out a soil mixing job in the Scottish Highlands, in fact! Soil mixing also has applications in the reinforcement and stabilisation of highways, railways and generic slopes. Generally, soil mixing can be carried out down to depths of around 20 metres or thereabouts.
Types Of Soil Mixing
Broadly speaking, there are two types of soil mixing:
Wet Soil Mixing
This process involves adding a slurry mix to the in-situ soil to produce a cementitious mix. This mix is pumped out of a nozzle located at the end of an augur. Rates, quantities and depth of drilling are all variables depending on the particularities of the soil in question.
Dry Soil Mixing
Where the soil is particularly moist, then a powder binding agent will be added; this then reacts with the water content within the soil to form the soil-cement mixture which improves overall structural strength.
Our Services
Here at Borehole Solutions, we offer a huge range of geotechnical services, including the following:
- Sonic Drilling. Our sonic drilling services are amongst the most comprehensive in the UK. We’ve become renowned for our quality, speed and efficacy of service.
- Cable Percussion Drilling. One of the most common intrusive methods out there, we offer a solid and reliable cable percussion drilling service that provides great results.
- Window Sampling. A versatile, cost-effective and quick drilling method, window sampling returns samples of high-quality time after time.
- We also offer restricted access drilling, casing and rig hire, calibrating and testing, handheld drilling services, pit digging, water well drilling, soakaway installation and more.
Contact Us
So, if you’d like to find out more about our various geotechnical or remediation services, or any other ground improvement methods, then get in touch! Contact Borehole Solutions today on 01733 200 501, by emailing us at info@boreholesolutions.com or, alternatively, by filling out one of our online enquiry forms. We look forward to hearing from you.
