Materials Testing Services in Alberta

Alpha Adroit's Advanced Materials Testing Services in Alberta include concrete testing, soil testing — including also soil compaction testing using nuclear densometers — rock testing, grout testing, and asphalt testing.

We provide services for the accurate determination of representative in-situ or engineered materials properties, proper selection and design of construction materials, and quality control of construction materials and their compliance with design specifications, including:

• Conducting standard, advanced, and custom-designed field and laboratory tests on soil, concrete, rock, aggregate, asphalt, and waste materials (ASTM, CSA, AASHTO, and Alberta specifications)
  
  
• Laboratory testing, field testing, testing review, interpretation of test results, development of technical specifications, and mix design for Portland cement concrete, grout (including Sika grout), mortar, shotcrete, plastic concrete, soil-cement, lime-treated soil, fly-ash treated soil, RCC (Roller Compacted Concrete), zero-slump concrete, light-weight concrete fills, and recycled materials 
  
  
• Concrete Non-Destructive Testing (Concrete NDT)
  
  
• Inspection and materials testing services for utility line placement, site grading, and construction of embankments, engineered fills, excavations, and retaining walls
  
  
• As part of foundation inspection services including monitoring, inspection, and materials testing services for driving of steel piles and construction of concrete shafts, caissons, belled piles, Compacto piles, CFA piles, footings, and mat foundations
  
  
• Rebar and form inspection and materials testing services for fresh and cured concrete for reinforced concrete constructions
  
  
• Soil testing and proof rolling inspection for pavements and sub-grades
  
  
• Soil compaction testing using nuclear densometer for sub-grades, site grading, engineered fills, and structural fills
  
  
• Concrete testing services for structural concrete, plastic concrete, zero-slump concrete, light-weight concrete, grout concrete, Sika grout, cementitious grout, non-shrink grout, shotcrete, roller-compacted concrete (RCC), cementitious materials, and asphalt concrete materials
  
  
• Materials engineering and design, lab tests, research, interpretation of test results, and development of technical knowledge databases for new engineering materials 
  
  
• Materials testing for Forensic Geotechnical Engineering applications (failure investigation, expert witness, remedial and repair engineering)
  
  
• Total Quality Management (TQM) and Registered Professional Engineer of Record Services for design review and field review of geotechnical engineering and construction materials testing aspects of building projects in compliance with Alberta Building Code (ABC), National Building Code of Canada (NBCC), and International Building Code (IBC)
  
  

— Call us Toll-Free: 1-844-4-ADROIT (1-844-423-7648) or please contact us here for more information (for Construction Quality Control Services in Alberta, please contact 780-708-4110).

A summary of our materials testing and construction quality control services is provided below:

Soils- Field Tests and Sampling

• Visual classification
• Pocket Penetrometer test
• Drilling and disturbed sampling
• Coring and core sampling
• Test pitting and block sampling
• Shelby tube sampling
• Osterberg tube sampling
• Continuous thin-wall tube sampling
• Standard Penetration Test (SPT)
• Cone Penetration Test (CPT)
• Seismic Cone Penetration Test with pore-water pressure measurement (SCPTu)
• Self-boring and Pre-bored Pressure-meter Test (PMT, sPMT)
• Field vane test
• Dilatometer test
• Slug test
• Nuclear field density and moisture content determination for soil compaction testing, asphalt testing, and concrete testing
• Sand cone test
• California Bearing Ratio (CBR)
• Plate Load Test (PLT)
• Field soil resistivity test (electrical resistivity and conductivity)
• Soil corrosivity (corrosion potential)

Soils- Laboratory Tests

• Moisture content test
• Organic content test
• Atterberg limit tests (plastic limit and liquid limit)
• Sieve analysis
• Hydrometer test
• Specific gravity
• Unified and AASHTO classification
• Soluble sulfate test 
• Laboratory soil and aggregate resistivity test (electrical resistivity and conductivity) 
• Soil corrosivity (corrosion potential)
• Salinity test
• PH test
• Pinhole test (dispersive clays)
• Thermal conductivity test
• Hydraulic conductivity test
• Compaction tests (standard and modified Proctor)
• Consolidation test
• Swelling, shrinkage, and collapsing potential tests
• Direct shear test
• Ring shear test (Alberta)
• Vane shear test
• Unconfined compressive strength test
• Triaxial Tests: unconfined compressive (UC), unconsolidated undrained (UU), consolidated undrained (CU), consolidated drained (CD), dynamic tests with bender element, and special stress path tests
• Soil-water characteristic curves for unsaturated soils
• California Bearing Ratio (CBR)

Rocks- Field Tests and Sampling

• Visual classification, mapping of discontinuities, and Rock Quality Indexing such as RQD
• Pocket penetrometer test on soft rocks
• Schmidt hammer test (Alberta and Saskatchewan only)
• Drilling
• Coring
• Test pitting
• Hydraulic fracturing test
• Seismic Cone Penetration Test with pore-water pressure measurement (SCPTu) in soft rock
• Self-boring and Pre-bored Pressure-meter Test (sPMT and PMT)
• Dilatometer test in soft rock
• Slug Test
• Lugeon test

Rocks- Laboratory Tests

• Moisture content test
• Density
• Wetting-drying disintegration test
• Atterberg tests for argillaceous rocks
• Thermal conductivity test
• Hydraulic conductivity test
• Direct shear test
• Ring shear test
• Schmidt hammer test
• Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test
• One dimensional creep and relaxation tests
• Triaxial Tests

Concrete- Fresh Concrete Tests and Sampling

• Air content
• Temperatures of fresh concrete and air
• Slump
• Cement content
• Water content
• Density
• Flume test for grout, shotcrete, and mortar
• Preparation and curing of cylindrical, cubic, and beam samples
• Potential Alkali-Silica Reactivity of aggregates
• Aggregate abrasion test (Micro-Deval)
• Mix design and review
• Construction monitoring

Concrete- Hardened Concrete Tests and Sampling

• Concrete coring - core sampling
• Concrete Non-Destructive Testing (Concrete NDT)
• Compressive strength (UCS) of concrete cylinders (3" by 6", 4" by 8", and 6" by 12") and cubes
• Tensile strength of concrete cylinders (Brazilian test)
• Creep test
• Schmidt hammer test
• Density
• Void percentage
• Hydraulic conductivity test
• Thermal conductivity test
• Direct shear test (interfacial shear between concrete and soil or other construction materials
• Interpretation of Stress-Strain-Time-Temperature relationships at extreme (elevated and cryogenic) temperatures and high pressures

Asphalt- Field Tests and Sampling 

• Nuclear field density determination
• Asphalt coring and core sampling
• Temperatures of asphalt mix and ambient air
• Construction monitoring

Asphalt- Laboratory Tests

• Mix design and review
• Density
• Moisture content test for emulsified asphalt, petroleum products, oil sand, complex tars, and other bituminous materials by distillation method
• Bitumen content test

Water Tests

• Turbidity
• TDS (Total dissolved solids)
• Hydrocarbon Contamination
• Metal Contamination 
• PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) 
• Salinity 
• Sterilants

 
Alpha Adroit provides materials testing services throughout Alberta including and not limited to the following major centers. Mileage (if applicable at all) will be calculated using one of the following closest municipality addresses (or hotel/camp address for remote projects) for large projects (please confirm at the time of requesting or ordering materials testing services):

— Call us Toll-Free: 1-844-4-ADROIT (1-844-423-7648) or please contact us here for more information.

Alpha Adroit Engineering Ltd is a professional member of APEGA (The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta), EGBC (Engineers and Geoscientists BC), APEGS (Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan), CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission), ACSA (Alberta Construction Safety Association), and CGS (Canadian Geotechnical Society).