Hi Guys,

I just got my permit to start structural works from BCA. But they require me to do a plate bearing test.

Has anyone done this test before? How much is this test including the excavator fees (including operator)?

Thanks in advance.

 

Your builder should arrange for this test. It’s not only the excavator but also the company who will bring the test equipment to do the measurements. 
if your test fails you will need to redo until you get it passed or change the foundation design before you can start work. 

Hi Snoozee,

My builder is arranging for this test. I just wanna find out the market price. Thanks.

My builder charged me around 2K for the test. Not sure if include excavator and operator cost or not as this was a VO which I paid due to the test being repeated due to initial failures. 
this was before COVID so not sure if price now had gone up by how much. 

Thanks for the info Snoozee!

Plate Loading Test is basically stacking of huge stones on top of the pile position to be tested. The Stones is meant to simulate the designed bearing load for the particular pile to check the pile's effectiveness to bear the load.

This is usually carried out for big, tall commercial project such as production factories, skyscraper, HDB flats. Usually for landed residential such as terrace, bungalows, semi-detached house, a PDA (Pile Dynamic Analysis) test would suffice most of the time. Such Plate Loading Test would usually be required if there are some irregularity with the pile's penetration depth, PDA results, etc.

On 7/30/2021 at 8:37 PM, 3Cube said:

Plate Loading Test is basically stacking of huge stones on top of the pile position to be tested. The Stones is meant to simulate the designed bearing load for the particular pile to check the pile's effectiveness to bear the load.

This is usually carried out for big, tall commercial project such as production factories, skyscraper, HDB flats. Usually for landed residential such as terrace, bungalows, semi-detached house, a PDA (Pile Dynamic Analysis) test would suffice most of the time. Such Plate Loading Test would usually be required if there are some irregularity with the pile's penetration depth, PDA results, etc.

This is not entirely correct. Plate bearing test is always done for houses that utilize raft or footings as their foundation design.

Example of plate bearing test being conducted from one of my current projects. The weight used is the weight of the excavator itself. $2k for such a test is reasonable and is necessary. It is a BCA requirement to do so.

PDA - (Pile Driving Analyzer) test is actually more when piles are the foundation type. And if necessary, they will conduct the ULT (Ulitmate Load Test) using the gigantic rocks like in the photo below:

 

 

This is photo of plate bearing test done for my house. test is done on excavated ground at 1.5m deep as that is the depth of the bottom of my footings as specified by my PE.

I will also need to do this test. It is to be paid by owner or contractor?

41 minutes ago, DaddyJP said:

I will also need to do this test. It is to be paid by owner or contractor?

Haha....ultimately it's still paid by owner one way or the other

8 hours ago, DaddyJP said:

I will also need to do this test. It is to be paid by owner or contractor?

normally part of the building contract unless the test fails then your contractor may claw back the cost for additional test(s) from you.

16 hours ago, DaddyJP said:

I will also need to do this test. It is to be paid by owner or contractor?

How much are you quoted for everything?

On 8/2/2021 at 1:54 PM, IceEyez said:

This is not entirely correct. Plate bearing test is always done for houses that utilize raft or footings as their foundation design.

Example of plate bearing test being conducted from one of my current projects. The weight used is the weight of the excavator itself. $2k for such a test is reasonable and is necessary. It is a BCA requirement to do so.

PDA - (Pile Driving Analyzer) test is actually more when piles are the foundation type. And if necessary, they will conduct the ULT (Ulitmate Load Test) using the gigantic rocks like in the photo below:

 

 

Structurally speaking, all building must have foundation. The sub-catagories under foundation type are Pile Cap (for caping a pile & facilitate load transfer), Footing (mostly not capping any piles but sometime, depending on soil condition, may cap Bakau Piles). Of course things like reinforced concrete pile  are part of the foundation (by definition structural element under the building embedded in earth / soil) What I'm stating here is just a simplified explaination for laymen's understanding.

Bakau pile are basically timber in nature (or Bakau tree trunks to help you understand visually).  It is installed either laying horizontally (usually in the case of drains, culverts laid parallel to lenth of drain or culvert) or vertically driven into the soil. Just google to see how Bakau pile looks like.

I would strongly urge you to check with a structural Engineer on contents of my post. I maintain my content in my previous post on this thread is true, based on the numerous project I've personal involved over 20+ years. Please understand it is simplify as I don't meant the post as a lecture but more of general knowledge to help laymen's visualisation. Sort of a non-numerical statistical summary.

In your post as attached, you mention raft foundation. Basic analogy, Raft foundation is like visually the building is a boat on water (soil) where the raft foundation is like the hull (base) of the boat in direct contact with the water (soil). I speculate this is why it's named as "raft". This is design / use to ensure even settlement of building on the earth / soil.

4 hours ago, HelloAC said:

How much are you quoted for everything?

The whole foundation work is $45k.

But not sure whether include the test or not. Need to check. 😓

37 minutes ago, DaddyJP said:

The whole foundation work is $45k.

But not sure whether include the test or not. Need to check. 😓

I feel the need to clarify in case anyone was comparing cost & to avoid misconception.

The price for piling varies due to different land / soil / earth condition. This also depends on the actual driven penetration depth. Hence if anyone is comparing cost, you should be looking at the rate per m (also rates for mobilization, etc) instead of overall total amount of the piling item. Usually piling works contractor depend on the bore log of soil report, site location's conditions, pile sizes & the piling plan to work out the rates.

Edited August 3, 20215 yr by 3Cube
added words