When Do You Need a Trial Trench Survey?
If you’re planning groundworks, a build, or any excavation near existing infrastructure, a trial trench survey tells you what’s actually in the ground before you start digging for real.
What a Trial Trench Survey Actually Checks
A trial trench survey exposes a section of ground to confirm what’s there before main works begin — buried services, ground conditions, foundations, or obstructions that drawings alone can’t guarantee.
When You Need One
- Before excavation near known or suspected utilities — to confirm depth and location before machinery gets near them
- Ahead of foundation design — to check ground conditions match what was assumed at design stage
- On sites with uncertain history — old industrial sites, infill land, or anywhere records are incomplete or unreliable
- When a planning condition requires it — some local authorities require evidence of ground conditions before approving certain works
- Before utility connections — to confirm exact position and depth of existing services before connecting new ones
What Happens If You Skip It
Striking an unmarked service is expensive and dangerous — repair costs, project delays, and in the case of gas or electric services, genuine safety risk. A trial trench survey is a small upfront cost against a much larger potential one.
What the Survey Produces
A proper trial trench survey gives you a written report covering what was found, at what depth, with supporting photos and a strata log of ground conditions — the kind of documentation a designer, contractor, or building control officer can actually rely on.
Make the Survey Itself Faster
Once you know you need a trial trench survey, the survey itself doesn’t have to mean hours of paperwork afterward. Trial Trench Surveys captures everything on site — plan views, sections, strata logs, and photos — and turns it into a finished report in minutes.