Consultant desktop study
$800 - $1,200
1 to 2 weeks
An engineer reads the mapped geology, soils and bore records and writes up the reactivity range to expect.
Geotechnical desktop study · QLD, NSW, VIC and SA
Know the ground before anyone drills
Mapped geology, nearby bore logs, groundwater, slope and an indicative soil reactivity range for the address, in one PDF. The site investigation still decides the class. This tells you what it should expect to find.
Free check, no account or card. Try or .
- $119 per report, no subscription
- 2-4 min address to PDF
- 312 council areas with soil reactivity mapping
- Not charged if a report fails
The desktop study comes first
Before the site investigation is scoped, someone reads what is already mapped about the ground. Normally that is an engineer, by hand.
LayeredGeo desktop report
$119
2 to 4 minutes · AUD incl. GST
- The same mapped evidence for your lot
- Our soil reactivity mapping, not published anywhere else
- A scope for the site investigation
- Credits never expire
Total: $119 AUD
Signed in? Straight to checkout. Otherwise pay as a guest in the app.
Site investigation
from $700
1 to 3 weeks
Boreholes on the lot, logged and tested. Decides the AS 2870 site class the footings are designed to. Still needed to build.
Typical 2026 residential prices. See desktop study vs geotechnical report.
What's in the report
Real pages from the free sample for Clayfield, Brisbane. Twenty-plus mapped layers, written up in plain English.
Only from LayeredGeo
Soil reactivity, mapped before anyone drills
Reactive clay shrinks and swells as it dries and wets, and the site class it earns sets the footing design. No government or data vendor publishes a reactivity layer, so we built one from four kinds of evidence.
- Mapped geological unitAnd the clay that unit weathers to.
- Soil clay contentNational soil grids, through the profile.
- LandformAlluvial flats and residual slopes behave differently.
- Climate zoneThornthwaite Moisture Index, which sets the depth of design suction change (Hs).
For each 250 m cell
An indicative reactivity range (for example Class S to M), an indicative characteristic surface movement where the evidence supports one, and what the site investigation should check.
Indicative only. It is not a site classification: the site investigation decides the class, and the report says so on the page. Outside the mapped footprint the report says so rather than guessing.
Elevated
Variable
Lower
Not yet mapped
Regional reactive-soil potential, 250 m cells
Council areas mapped
- 41QLD
- 124NSW
- 76VIC
- 71SA
Who uses it
- Builders
- See the reactivity range before the slab is priced.
- Developers
- Compare lots for the cost of one site investigation.
- Engineers
- Scope the boreholes with the geology and bore logs in hand.
- Buyers
- Know the ground before the contract goes unconditional.
Questions
Is this a site classification?
No. An AS 2870 site classification comes from a site investigation: boreholes on the lot, logged and tested, with an engineer assigning the class. This is a desktop study. It brings together what is already mapped about the ground and sets out the reactivity range to expect and what the site investigation should look for. The site investigation decides the class.
What does the soil reactivity page tell me?
An indicative reactivity range for the site, for example Class S to M, an indicative characteristic surface movement (ys) where the evidence supports one, and a scope for the site investigation. It is built at 250 m resolution from the mapped geological unit, soil clay content, landform and climate zone, and the report lists every source behind it. It is indicative only and is not a site classification. It covers the mapped footprint in QLD, NSW, VIC and SA, 312 council areas in all.
Which addresses are covered?
Any street address in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria or South Australia. The soil reactivity mapping covers its mapped footprint in each of those states, and a report outside it says so rather than guessing. If we cannot resolve an address, the free check on this page tells you before you pay anything.
Do I need an account?
Not for a one-off. Enter the address, pay as a guest and the PDF is delivered to you. An account is only worth it if you buy credits in bulk or want your past reports in one place.
How long does it take?
Two to four minutes from payment to a finished PDF. There is no queue, no site visit and no quote to wait on.
What if the report fails or a layer has no data?
You are not charged for a failed job: a report credit is only deducted once a PDF has been produced. Where a layer has no data for a site, the report says so rather than leaving a blank, because a gap in the mapping is itself something to know before you rely on it.
Will my engineer use it?
It does not replace their advice. Engineers use a desktop study for scoping: with the geology, nearby bore logs, groundwater and the reactivity range in hand, the borehole plan is aimed at the right things. Plenty of customers buy it so the conversation with their engineer starts further along.
There is a page on exactly that for geotechnical engineers.
Can I buy for several sites?
Yes. Buy up to 20 report credits at a time from this page. Credits never expire and can be spent on any covered address.
Start with the address
The free check takes about ten seconds. Decide about the $119 afterwards.
Sample report · Worked example · Data sources · How it works