Getting Rid of Soil Samples

[Riggly]

I have been accumulating a number of soil samples in the storage area, and is running out of space. The question is, how long should I keep soil samples before getting rid of them? Additionally, how should I dispose these samples? Is it advisable to give some of these simples to a geotech lab at schools, if they are willing to take it and use teach students about 'real world' of soil classification?

Thanks in advance for your contributions.

Note: I am in USA

 

[BigH]

Normally, we would put into the report that we would keep the soil samples for 6 months after the submission of the report. We would send out a letter a month or so before and advise client that the soil would be disposed - if they wanted to keep the samples, they should advise us. (in reality, we did this about every 2 years!). Given that, in 1978 I found shelby tubes in the lab from the early 1960s sitting on shelves!!! Some jobs, the President just didn't want to say good-bye!

 

[Ron]

Check your general conditions of your standard contract and make sure you don't already have a time specified in there. We normally see a 60 or 90 day retention, but have seen longer and have seen shorter. That seems like a reasonable time frame. Have also had BigH's experience with samples being kept for years.

If the samples contain contaminated soil, don't take ownership of the samples and return them to the owner after a reasonable time, such as 30 days past issuance of the report.

As for typical soil samples, I like your idea of donating them to a local university for the students to use. You might supply them with your validation of the classification, that way they would have a comparison after taking their shot at visual and physical testing for classification.

 

[oldestguy]

Interesting subject. In the geotech firm where I worked for 19 years we first would say in the report initially that we will send the client the samples. No requests. Later we suggested if they want them we will hold for several months. Still no requests.

Where we had some job problem and we figured looking at old samples might help, well never did they help.

So finally we just threw them out as soon as convenient and never did we have the need for those samples again.
My suggestion is just throw them out when convenient and don't even mention what you did with them in the report.

Later after being my own boss and hiring drill crews, I kept the same policy and still no problems.

This is based on thousands of test bores and hundreds of reports.

For Shelby tube samples if there is a universality nearby, give them some for each year's class sessions.

If you find it difficult to get good jars, then sometimes with slack work, empty them and re-use. I liked olive jars, since a long sample then could be tested for unconfined compression. We used a valve spring tester for a quick test.

 

[fattdad]

I use the same protocol as oldestguy. Never a problem, never a request. I don't like wasting space in a report telling folks what I intend on doing. I'm just silent and do what I want to do. After all the samples are instruments of service and I'm under no product liability to provide them in any condition as a condition of service.

f-d

¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

 

[Riggly]

Guys, I appreciate the quick and informative responses. I spoke to someone at a geotech lab, and he told me that he gets rid of them after 3 months. I have been asking about this for a while to other geotechs in our company, but there seem to be no standard, but I said what better place could I get some info than Engineering Tips.

Cheers!

Thanks a lot.

 

[iandig]

In the UK the lab samples have to be kept for a minimum of 28 days after issue of report unless they are required by the Client to be kept. Most UK labs will do this on a rolling basis, and samples are typically stored for 6 to 8 weeks. As for SI companies, well, in my experience it has to be a minimum of 6 months (unless requested to keep them longer, charge storage etc...) after 'first' issue of report, and in general this usually stretchs to around 12 months, again on a rolling basis.

 

[TDAA]

Last place of work, we said 30 days in the proposal. In reality, they were often tossed the first opportunity we had after the report went out.

Donation is also good. It would help if you have consistent soils in your area though, as they can then see if students are getting consistent results. But ask them, I think if they are in need, they would appreciate any. As I recall, my Proff. was thrilled to get several samples of old lake bed deposits off a Corps of Engineering project (from former student). Beautiful Shelbys of very consistent clay from about 160 to 180 feet below the surface.

 

[Riggly]

I offered samples to the geotech professor at my school, and she was very appreciative of the offer- I will be dropping them off soon.