Individuals who are planning on having a building project done often work with engineers of different kinds — including geotechnical engineers — for advice and assistance during the planning stages. Many building contractors work with these engineers, too, and sometimes even architects and landmoving professionals work with geotechnical engineers.

Geotechnical engineers are typically able to provide great advice for building projects because they have the necessary education, training, and experience. They typically look at a few different things related to the land when offering their consulting services, such as the things listed below.

Where the Water Tables Are

Geotechnical engineers typically need to know where the water tables are on a piece of property for a couple of reasons. This information can be helpful for them if they need to provide advice about things like where septic tanks or water wells need to be installed, for example.

What Drainage Is Like on the Property

It's important for geotechnical engineers to check out the drainage on the property and to pay attention to things like the floodplain. This helps them determine if a building site is actually a good, safe site for a home or other structure to be built in the first place or if it might be too risky to build something on the property. It can help them determine where a structure should be built so that drainage will be less of an issue, and it can help them provide advice about changes that might need to be made to the property to help prevent flooding and standing water. For example, they might advise that the land be built up a little bit with sand or dirt, or they might suggest that drainage ditches or slopes be added to the property.

The Condition of the Soil and Rock

Of course, anytime that a building project is being done, it's important to make sure that the soil that it is being built on is in good shape. After all, this can have a huge impact on the quality of the structure, the cost of the foundation, and more. A geotechnical engineer might perform soil testing and might provide recommendations about things like whether or not additional work needs to be done to the soil before building can begin.

The Slope of the Property

When building on hilly or mountainous property, geotechnical engineers pay attention to the slopes of the property and help provide recommendations about safety and proper building.