Geotechnical survey questions, answered

Not before the plot has been seen. The price depends on the number and depth of boreholes, rock or soil, the number of seismic lines, the laboratory tests and the type of report. All of that is settled at the site visit.

After the visit you receive an itemised written quote, valid for 30 days. You see what you are paying for before work starts.

No, because the items that set the price cannot be known before the plot has been seen. A figure given over the phone changes after the site visit. Send the location or the block and parcel number, the crew visits the plot and prepares the written quote after that. You get a reply within 2 hours in office hours.

The size of the area, the number of boreholes and measurements, and the report format the institution requires. Otto Mühendislik sees the area and the plan, then quotes in writing.

Within 15 business days after drilling is complete. That figure is written into the quote and covers the transport of samples to the laboratory, the tests and the writing of the report.

The number of days on site depends on the borehole count and the ground, and is given at the site visit. If your permit schedule is tight, say so at the start and the drilling date is planned around it.

There are two periods. The number of days on site depends on the borehole count, the depth and whether the work is in rock or soil, and is given at the site visit. The report is delivered within 15 business days after drilling is complete, and that period is written into the quote. With the office in Ortakent, a site visit in Bodrum is arranged at short notice, and the drilling date is planned around your permit schedule.

It depends on the number of boreholes, the depth and the type of ground. The number of days on site is written into the quote after the site visit.

No. Someone to open the gate is enough. What is done on site is recorded and entered in the report.

You need one to obtain a building permit. The municipality asks for the plot's geotechnical report in the permit file, and the structural design is drawn to the soil class and bearing capacity in that report.

The best time is just before the architectural design is fixed, or alongside it. The report can change the foundation type, and if the survey comes last the design goes through another round.

Yes. The municipality asks for the plot's geotechnical report for every building that needs a permit, and a single villa is no exception. The borehole count and depth follow the rule TBDY 2018 sets for the plot and the building, and the ground conditions, and that rule applies to a single villa too. Otto Mühendislik prepares the data report and the geotechnical report for a single villa in the same format.

The count is set at the site visit, based on the plot and the number of blocks. A number given over the phone would mislead you. The code sets a minimum per building, but the depth to rock, the slope and the layout of the blocks change it.

One example for scale. On a 3-block housing project, 6 boreholes of 5 metres in rock plus 3 seismic lines were quoted. Otto Mühendislik does not write a report on fewer boreholes than the code requires, because missing data shows up in the foundation excavation.

The report is delivered to you and to the architect or structural engineer designing your project. Whoever prepares the permit file adds it in, and the structural engineer sizes the foundation from it.

If the municipality has a question or asks for a revision, Otto Mühendislik handles it. You do not chase the file.

It helps if you send the old report, since depth to rock and groundwater level point the way. But for the permit the municipality asks for a report written to the current code, TBDY 2018. Reports written to earlier codes are not accepted.

Even a TBDY 2018 report may need extra boreholes if the design has changed, the blocks have moved or the old boreholes do not match the new layout. Send it over, and how much of it can be used is told at the site visit.

They take the soil class and the foundation recommendation from the geotechnical report and size the foundation from those values. The report states which borehole and which test each value came from.

Otto Mühendislik wrote the report, so Otto answers the question. What came out of the field is on record, and if a clarification is needed it is added to the report.

The plot's block/parcel number, the architectural project or the number of storeys if you have them, and how to reach the plot. The rest is seen on site.

Most plots, yes. The truck-mounted rigs work on Bodrum's sloped, rocky ground. At the site visit, where the truck gets in and how it reaches each borehole point is looked at together with you.

There is one condition. Preparing the drilling area so the truck can work is the owner's responsibility. If a track, levelling or clearing is needed it is settled at the visit, and the area has to be ready when the truck arrives on drilling day.

Work happens in a small area around the borehole. The truck leaves tracks where it passes. Where the rig comes in is decided with you at the site visit.

The depth is written on the box. What is needed for testing goes to the laboratory, and the result appears in the report at the same depth.

A straight line across the plot is enough for the geophone spread. No excavation or heavy machinery is needed.

It can be done in the garden or a suitable open spot. The location is set at the site visit. If there is no room, drilling is planned for after demolition.

Bodrum and Milas as a whole. The office is in Ortakent, and from Yalıkavak to Turgutreis and from Torba to Güllük a site visit is arranged at short notice. Further afield is rare, because having the truck and the crew nearby speeds up both the drilling date and the report.

Public and infrastructure work is different. The crew has worked on railway, highway and zoning-plan surveys in other parts of Turkey. All of them are listed with the client's name on the references page.

Yes. Otto Mühendislik's service area covers the whole of Bodrum and Milas. In Milas the crew completed a planning-stage survey over 1,000 hectares at Kazıklı for Muğla Metropolitan Municipality and ground investigations for housing and hotel plots at Boğaziçi. Site visits to coastal neighbourhoods such as Güllük, Ören and Kıyıkışlacık come from the office in Ortakent, Bodrum, and the report comes from the same crew.

No. In Bodrum, Otto Mühendislik does both the drilling and the report with its own crew. The two truck-mounted rigs and the portable core drill belong to the crew, and the engineer who writes the report is on the same site as the crew that drills the borehole. For design offices that need drilling only, core drilling is also offered as a separate service, with borehole logs and core photographs delivered.

The fieldwork is the same, with drilling, seismic survey and laboratory tests carried out as usual. The difference is in the report's format and where it goes. For an urban renewal file the report is written to TBDY 2018 in the layout the municipality and the provincial directorate of the Ministry of Environment require.

If a plot needs both a permit survey and an urban renewal report, both are produced from one drilling programme and the truck does not come twice.

Yes. In Bodrum, the file of an owner whose building has been classed as risky, or who is applying under the urban renewal scheme to demolish and rebuild, needs a ground report written to TBDY 2018. The report goes to the provincial directorate of the Ministry of Environment as well as the municipality. The fieldwork is the same as a standard survey, and drilling can be done in the garden while the old building is still standing.

The owner or contractor handles the application. Otto Mühendislik prepares the ground report in the required format for inclusion in the application file.

Municipalities. When an area is opened to development or a zoning plan changes, its geology and ground conditions are reported as a whole, not plot by plot. Which zones can be built on, which need precautions and which cannot comes out of that report, and the plan is drawn from it.

It is a plan-scale service, not one for a single plot owner. Three examples are on the references page: Göktepe, Kazıklı and Tavşanburnu.

The difference is scale. A plot survey is for one building, a planning survey covers a whole plan area. The Milas Kazıklı study covered 1,000 hectares.

A borehole describes the point where it was drilled and says nothing about the ground between two boreholes. The seismic survey sends waves from the surface and reads what lies between. Where the rock rises, where there is a hollow and how the layers run is seen from it.

The soil class is given from both together. From boreholes alone the ground between points is guesswork, and from seismic alone there is no sample in hand.

Yes. Seismic surveys and drilling are planned as part of the same field investigation.

At the laboratory Otto Mühendislik works with in Aydın. Core and soil samples from the site are labelled and sent there, and the results appear in the report together with the borehole and depth each sample came from.

Otto Mühendislik does not have its own laboratory. The test reports go into the survey file's appendix exactly as they come from the laboratory.

The tests required for soil classification and geotechnical calculations. The selection depends on the sample type.

The test reports are an appendix to the survey file and are delivered to you with it.