There are few things worse for a general contractor than the words “over budget” and “unsafe”. At Thurber, we proactively help you prevent materials issues that impact budget and project safety. Our quality control services start before construction: we support you during project design to select the appropriate materials and design or review the specifications. We support the construction process by testing materials to verify that they comply with specifications.
Proactive material review helps prevent rework by catching issues before they become major – and expensive - problems. Assessing material quality during construction helps catch defects before the building or roadway is constructed, thereby providing a safe product for the end-user – and a quality project for the client.
Pictured: Using the Ultrasonic Pulse Echo to detect flaws in concrete
Thurber provides materials engineering and testing services that verify quality to help our clients avoid construction delays and manage costs. Our clients benefit from:
Our leadership in the industry since 1957
- Our solid reputation attracts some of the best geotechnical and materials engineers in Canada. Our team has extensive knowledge and experience with all aspects of soils, foundations, concrete, and asphalt construction.
- We help advance the industry through membership and participation in the American Concrete Institute (Alberta Chapter), the Transportation Association of Canada, Concrete Alberta, Concrete BC, and the Canadian Technical Asphalt Association. Through our involvement in these organizations, we remain current on concrete innovation, standards, and regulatory requirements.
- We provide training to others in the industry
Our investments in technology
- We own equipment that makes material quality control inspection easier and more accurate, including:
- Ground penetrating radar to scan concrete and pavements to estimate thickness and identify any abnormalities
- Crosshole sonic logging to identify concerns with concrete foundation integrity
- Falling Weight Deflectometer to measure the physical properties of pavement
- Ultrasonic Pulse Echo to look for anomalies under the concrete’s surface
- Copper sulfate electrode testing to evaluate the durability and structural integrity of concrete consisting of reinforced steel
- Inertial profiler to test the smoothness of an asphalt surface
- And more
Our investment in training and certification
- Our labs are certified by the Canadian Council of Independent Laboratories (CCIL), meaning we adhere to high quality standards
- Our materials testers are CCIL certified, meaning they bring extensive knowledge
- We provide in-house training to ensure our laboratories follow standardized testing methods to ensure the same level of quality across all our offices
- We follow established procedures to provide our clients with reliable and defendable test results
Our commitment to client service
- We provide one point of contact from project initiation to completion
We provide construction materials quality control services for projects of all sizes, including landfills, wastewater lagoons, transportation structures, underground utilities, roadways, and bridges. Our standard services include:
- Concrete:
- Cylinder compressive strength: assesses the concrete’s resistance to compression before failing or breaking
- Concrete slump: assesses the consistency and workability of the concrete mix to verify that it conforms to specifications
- Concrete air content: verifies that the concrete has the proper air content for durability and long-term performance for its intended use
- Asphalt:
- Marshall compliance test: assesses the stability and flow properties of asphalt concrete mixture under specified conditions
- Rolling patterns: assesses the rolling pattern to verify that uniform density and smoothness has been achieved on the freshly laid asphalt pavement
- Coring: in-situ density and thickness testing to assess the condition, quality, and properties of the asphalt pavement for design and maintenance purposes
- Coatings:
- Selecting appropriate coatings for the environment
- Choosing the appropriate coating thickness
- Proper surface preparation
- Adhesion testing
- Lead analysis
Pictured: Cyclinder compressive strength testing
Our advanced services include:
- Concrete:
- Advanced lab testing
- Resistivity
- Mix design
- Beam testing
- Anchor pull out testing
- Thermal modelling and planning
- QC plans
- Supplier plant audits
- Failure analysis
- Service life modelling
- Corrosion testing
- Asphalt:
- Mix design, mobile lab testing
- Aggregate strength and durability testing
- Coatings:
- QC plans
- Failure analysis
- Steel corrosion assessment
- Service life modelling
Pictured: Using our drone for bridge condition assesssments
Thurber supports contractors in a number of other ways: