Five ways to ensure competence of a geotechnical services contractor
When you're planning geotechnical works, there are usually more options on the table than you'd expect. Good procurement isn't about finding the cheapest number — it's about understanding the range of solutions available, being honest about the risk, and picking the contractor who gives you the best overall value for the project.
Price is only one factor, and honestly it's rarely the most important one. The real question is the one most people skip: what should you actually be comparing?
Based on what our clients tell us matters most, here's the checklist we'd apply to any contractor you're evaluating.
Track Record & Sector Experience
Start with the obvious one that gets overlooked. Have they actually done this in your sector — motorsport, rail, residential, infrastructure — or are they showing you a portfolio that looks adjacent but isn't? And do they genuinely understand the design behaviour relevant to your asset? A Formula 1 track does not behave like a standard road, and neither behaves like a rail formation. If a contractor treats them all the same, that tells you something.
Local / Out of hours Capability
The next thing I'd want to know is whether they have crews in your country, or whether they're flying teams in. Local operatives mean faster mobilisation, lower cost, and far easier accountability when you need someone on site. The flip side matters just as much: if things don't quite go to plan during night shift or otherwise — and sometimes they don't — can they actually react and support you quickly, or are you waiting on a flight?
Technical Competence
This is where it gets serious, and where I'd push hardest. How many geotechnical engineers do they actually employ, and how many are chartered? Do they have structural engineers in-house, or is that work subbed out? Can they produce a completion report and a design certificate signed off by a qualified third party — not just their own say-so?
And then the harder questions. Have they published peer-reviewed research, or can they point you to independent literature that validates their method? Can they quantify the expected outcome before they start — for example through a finite element or Plaxis model — rather than just promising it'll be fine? Do they have proper lifting procedures and, crucially, over-lift prevention? In case of another injection solution, has the injection material been leachate tested? Can they prove the design life of that material, and is it water resistant? These aren't unreasonable things to ask. The good contractors will have the answers ready.
Operational Competence & Safety
A lot of risk lives here, and it's the part people forget to interrogate. What do the operatives' CVs actually look like — how many years of real geotechnical work experience are on the crew? What's their safety record? How do they manage hand-arm vibration syndrome, and the respiratory risks that come with chemical hardeners? How do they stay compliant on drivers' hours? Do they run legal checks on the people who'll be entering your property or your home? And what are their protocols for finding and avoiding underground utilities and live services before anyone starts injecting? If those answers are vague, that's a problem waiting to happen.
Commercial Terms & Customer Experience
Then there's how they are to deal with. What does the guarantee actually cover — read it properly, because "guaranteed" can mean very little. How clear are their contract terms? How responsive are they when you've got a question? And here's the one our clients seem to rate most highly: are they flagging risks early, before you've signed anything? A contractor who talks openly about what could go wrong is usually one who's thought about it. Look at their customer satisfaction scores too — they tell you more than the brochure does.
Possibly most importantly - what is the approach when things don’t go to plan, are they taking ownership and helping to solve the problem? According to most experienced buyers in this sector, this is the best indicator of a quality contractor.
And Then — Price
Price matters. Of course it does. But it has to be judged in context. The question isn't "what does this cost?" — it's "what does it cost if it goes wrong, and what do I save if it's done right, with no disruption to my asset?"
Even a seemingly routine geotechnical project can go badly wrong in design or delivery if it isn't executed properly. If a contractor saves you 30% on the quote but over-lifts a Formula 1 track surface, the cost of putting that right — repairs, downtime, reputational damage, contractual liability — dwarfs anything you saved at procurement. That's not a hypothetical. That's the maths.
The best contractors are the ones who are comfortable talking about risk. They'll tell you exactly what can go wrong and exactly how they'll mitigate it. If a contractor can't answer those questions with confidence, that's a red flag — and I'd treat it as one.
