Do You Need a Soils Report for a Metal Building?

Short answer: legally, sometimes. Practically, almost always helpful. Here's the longer version.

A geotechnical soils report — also called a soils investigation, geotech report, or subsurface exploration — tells your engineer what the dirt actually does under load. It typically includes: soil classification, presumptive bearing capacity, depth to competent strata, water table elevation, frost depth, expansive or collapsible behavior, and recommended footing types. For a pre-engineered metal building, all of those inputs feed directly into how the foundation gets sized.

When a Soils Report Is Legally Required

Whether a soils report is required depends on three things: the adopted building code in your jurisdiction, the size and use of the building, and the local Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) preferences.

Under IBC 2021 and IBC 2024, Section 1803 requires a geotechnical investigation in any of the following cases:

• The structure is in Seismic Design Category C, D, E, or F (with limited exceptions for one- and two-story residential).
• The site is on a slope, near a slope, or where slope stability is a concern.
• The building is on or near expansive soils (Plasticity Index above 15 in many jurisdictions).
• The site is in a flood hazard area or has known fill, organics, or contaminated materials.
• The AHJ requires it — and many large jurisdictions do for any commercial structure regardless of code minimums.

If none of those conditions trigger, the IBC allows you to use presumptive load-bearing values from Table 1806.2 — the default soil bearing values built into the code. These are intentionally conservative, which is the trade-off.

When Skipping the Soils Report Is a Bad Idea (Even If Legal)

Even when your code doesn't strictly require a geotech, there are situations where skipping it almost always costs you money:

• Suspected expansive clay. North Texas, central Mississippi, parts of Colorado's Front Range, and pockets of the Southwest have notorious shrink-swell soils. Designing to presumptive values here means oversizing — or, worse, missing a real condition that cracks your slab two seasons in.
• Coastal sites or high water table. Gulf Coast, Florida, coastal Carolinas, the Pacific Northwest's Puget Sound mud, San Francisco Bay Area Bay Mud — presumptive values don't capture liquefiable or soft compressible layers.
• Permafrost or near-permafrost. Most of Alaska. Permafrost design is its own discipline; presumptive values do not apply.
• Heavy column loads or large clear spans. When your column reactions exceed 50–80 kips, the cost of an oversized footing driven by conservative presumptive values starts to rival the cost of the geotech report.
• High seismic. Even when SDC C or higher legally requires a geotech, contractors sometimes try to skip it on small projects. Don't — site-specific seismic response matters.

How SteelReady Handles It

We design every foundation package one of two ways:

With a soils report: We read your geotech, extract the recommended bearing capacity and any special design notes (deepened footings, drilled piers, soil replacement), and incorporate them into the package. If the report recommends a non-standard foundation type, we engineer to it.

Without a soils report: We design conservatively to IBC presumptive bearing values per Table 1806.2 — typically 1,500 psf for most clay/silt/sand mixes, with adjustments for known regional conditions. We document this assumption clearly on the foundation drawings so the AHJ and your inspector know what we designed to.

If your jurisdiction or your project conditions require a geotech and you don't have one, we'll tell you up front. We won't stamp a package that doesn't meet code.

What a Soils Report Costs

Geotech reports for typical PEMB projects run $2,000–$6,000 in most U.S. markets — sometimes less for small buildings, sometimes more for sites with difficult access or contamination concerns. That cost almost always pays for itself if the report identifies a condition that lets you reduce footing sizes, or if it catches a condition that would have caused a failure.

Bottom Line

If your project is in SDC C or above, on expansive or suspect soils, near a slope, on fill, or your AHJ requires it — get the geotech.

If you're outside those conditions and the building is small, SteelReady can design conservatively to IBC presumptive values without one. The trade-off is a slightly heavier foundation.

When in doubt, ask. We'll tell you whether your specific project needs a soils report before you spend the money.

Ready to Get a Price?

Send us your reaction tables and your geotech (if you have one). We'll send back an exact, fixed-price quote — typically within an hour.

Get a Quote · info@steelready.com · (435) 851-1522