Field Notes

Writing on subsurface risk, earth support, and deep foundations. We publish the thresholds, the curves, and the data sources, including the gaps, so you can argue with the numbers rather than the conclusion.

• July 19, 2026/16 min read

  Fifteen ways a deep foundation job goes wrong, ranked by cost

  Most subsurface tools rank hazards by what is easy to compute. Ours ranks them by what is expensive to get wrong.

  A boring log scores the ground. The failures that actually put earth-support contractors out of business are usually about what sits next to the hole. This is the full risk register we score against, with every threshold, curve, and data source published so you can check our work.

  • geotechnical risk
  • earth support
  • dewatering
  • site investigation