A two-storey extension on the Clane Road last autumn ran into trouble. The trial pits hit soft alluvial clay at just 1.2 metres. The architect had assumed 150 kPa bearing. We redesigned the shallow foundation as a stiffened raft with edge beams—construction continued the following week without a pause. In Celbridge the ground changes fast. Glacial till gives way to river deposits within a single site. That variability is what drives our shallow foundation design work: no generic tables, no assumed bearing values. Just site-specific analysis backed by lab data from our ISO 17025 accredited facility. When the borehole log shows a stiff boulder clay layer at 1.5 metres, we design the footing to sit on it. When it doesn't, we look at deep excavation support options or ground improvement before committing to a shallow solution.
Bearing capacity is not a number you pick from a table. It's a number the ground gives you—once you've tested it properly.
