Exploratory Test Pit Services in Pickering, Ontario

The price for a single exploratory test pit in Pickering typically falls between CA$720 and CA$1,190. The spread depends on access constraints, the need for traffic control on busier roads like Brock Road, and whether the pit stays open overnight for groundwater monitoring. If we’re doing three or four pits across a site, the per-unit cost drops because the mob and demob get shared.

With an exploratory test pit, you get a continuous cross-section of the overburden instead of a 50 mm diameter sample every 1.5 meters. That matters in Pickering where the Halton Till contains cobbles and boulders that an SPT spoon either pushes aside or hits, giving you an artificially high ‘N’ value. The pit lets you see the actual cobble fabric, measure the thickness of a soft clay seam that a driller might miss entirely, and take larger, less disturbed samples for lab testing.

It varies block by block. South of Bayly Street toward the lake, the groundwater table often sits between 1.8 and 2.5 meters below grade, especially in spring. Up on the till plains north of Highway 401, you might stay dry down to 4 meters. When we hit water, we map the seepage face, measure the inflow rate, and can leave the pit open with a piezometer to track how the level recovers overnight—that data is gold for the drainage design.

Any excavation deeper than 1.2 meters triggers the OHSA trench safety requirements. We use a stepped bench cut or a certified trench box, keep the spoils at least 1 meter back from the edge, and have a competent person check the pit walls for tension cracks before anyone enters. In Pickering’s silty clays, a rain shower can soften the face quickly, so we tarp the sides and pump out any accumulation before logging resumes.