SOLROC offers a full spectrum of building materials control and laboratory testing services

Building materials control and laboratory testing services for commercial, residential, and industrial projects

  • CSA (Canadian Standards Association ) and BNQ (Bureau de normalisation du Québec )laboratory testing
  • Quality control and testing of concrete, mortar, grout, brick, asphalt, gravel, soil, recycled materials, stabilized materials, membranes, epoxy, etc.
  • Asphalt casting control by infrared thermography
  • Material engineering; verification/approbation of technical protocols for gravel and concrete
  • Gravel expertise
  • Pyrite testing
  • Pyrrhotite detection and expertise
  • Inspection over water infiltration, drains, roofs, etc.
  • Roof and membranes inspection (member AMCQ - Association des Maîtres Couvreurs du Québec ) through visual inspection, thermography, nuclear hygrometer, water tightness testing by certified inspectors

Compaction control.

Pressuremeter test - APAFOR 450 RP Drilling unit

For major infrastructure work such as roads, bridges, overpasses, dams, harbors, etc.

  • Structural inspection of commercial or industrial buildings using dry or wet magnetoscopy , reinforcing steel rod detection in concrete, inspection and evaluation of parking concrete slabs, measurement of bridge concrete or any other construction work using nondestructive tools (hammer sounding, corrosion potential, half-cell testing, carbonatation measurement, resistivity, pH, etc.), and destructive methods such as core sampling, compression tests, air bubbles, and so on upon request.
  • On-site concrete resistance measurements (Windsor probe, Lok-Test and Schmidt Hammer)
  • Nondestructive concrete sounding
  • Supervision of excavation, underpinning work, earth-work, compaction of embankment, slope stability, bearing capacity , etc.
  • Vibration monitoring (seismograph) of demolition or dynamiting work
  • Supervision of special foundation works (piles, drilled caissons)
Solroc - Building material control - Pyrrhotite

Pyrrotite - Santa Eulalia Aquiles Serdan Mine (Chihuahua), Mexico - © Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 3.0

Pyrrhotite problems

Pyrrhotite is a naturally occurring mineral in the soil that must not be present in the aggregate used in the composition of concrete. Pyrrhotite oxidizes on contact with air and moisture and releases sulfuric acid which attacks the cement paste.

Crushed stone "contaminated" with pyrrhotite, and extracted from two (2) quarries in the Mauricie region, was used in the foundation construction for many buildings between 1996 and 2007. Several owners in the RCMs of Maskinongé, Chenaux and Nicolet-Yamaska, in the Mont-Laurier area and in Bécancour are faced with major problems related to the reaction of pyrrhotite in concrete which can seriously damage the building foundations. The most characteristic indication of the possible presence of pyrrhotite in the aggregate of the concrete is the observation of check cracking.

SOLROC has the experience and expertise to diagnose and quantify this problem and provide the required evidence before the courts.