Ground, flood, drainage, water, access and structure checked before a site is bought or a design fixed, with abnormal costs named.
A site is priced on the assumption that it can be founded, drained, serviced and reached at a normal cost. A feasibility study tests that assumption before the money is committed, and names the abnormals that would change the price.
The architect tests what planning will allow on a site. The engineer tests whether it can be built, drained, accessed and serviced, and what that costs. Both answers are needed before a site is bought, and they are cheapest to get together.
We specify the site investigation and read it, screen the flood risk, find the outfall, start the Uisce Éireann enquiry and check the access. For an existing building we check whether it can take an extra storey, a change of use or new openings. The result is a list of abnormals a quantity surveyor can price.
Each of these is a cost a normal price does not include. Found before the site is bought, it is a line in the negotiation; found after, it comes out of the margin.
| Check | What it can find | What that costs |
|---|---|---|
| Ground | Made ground, soft alluvium or peat | Piles or a raft instead of strip foundations, and the cost of disposing of what is dug out. |
| Flood | Land in or beside Flood Zone A or B | Raised floor levels, compensatory storage, or a use the site cannot take. |
| Drainage | No gravity outfall within reach | A pumping station, a long outfall, or more of the site given to attenuation. |
| Water and wastewater | A network without the capacity | Upgrades the development has to fund, and months added to the programme. |
| Access | Sightlines the entrance cannot achieve | Junction works, land from a neighbour, or a different entrance. |
| Existing structure | Walls or foundations already at their limit | Strengthening, new foundations, or a smaller scheme. |
| Radon | A High Radon Area on the EPA map | A radon barrier as well as the standby sump: a cost line rather than a reason to walk away. |
Each finding with what it means for the price and the programme.
Monksland, Athlone, 2025
The Irish Water pre connection enquiries and diversion applications started alongside the drawings, because that correspondence is usually the long pole on a scheme this size.
Killester, Dublin, 2023
Sixty seven apartments on 0.194 hectares: a site that tight settles the frame before anything else does.
Drawings, a specification, or the site address and the programme dates: whatever you have is enough to start. We come back inside two working days, and a written fee proposal against a defined scope follows within three working days of that.