Newbuild Home Screen
Buying and moving into a brand new home is exciting. And stressful though we’d like to make the process a little less so.
The obvious upside of a newbuild property is fairly obvious - everything is new! However, that can be a downside if you’re lucky enough to also have a garden.
Construction is a messy business and although developers will do their best to make a property look as attractive as possible, it is likely that the condition of the soil will leave something to be desired even if a thin layer of top soil is sprinkled on top of what has been a busy building site. Plus, there’s the possibility your new growing space may have traces of undesirable elements that could potentially pose a risk to your health.
Examples of the issues many a newbuild garden faces include leftover builders’ sand that often contains lime, which will potentially - at least temporarily - raise the pH of the soil. Leftover chalk from cement can sometimes also feature, which could potentially raise the pH still more. Then there’s the excess salt that features prominently in unwashed builders’ sand.
The story can get messier if older buildings were demolished to make room for your newbuild with the potential of contamination with heavy metals and even asbestos.
That is why we’ve created the Newbuild Home Screen to allow you to get to know your growing space by measuring the fertility/quality of the soil while also ensuring peace of mind that your garden is safe for you and your family by running a check for some common toxic heavy metals and asbestos.
The screen includes the following elements:
- Electrical Conductivity (measures salt content)
- pH
- Texture
- Organic matter content
- Potassium
- Phosphorus
- Magnesium
- Asbestos
- Arsenic
- Beryllium
- Cadmium
- Copper
- Lead
- Mercury (total)
- Nickel
- Selenium
- Vanadium
- Zinc
- Please note that if your new home is built on a former brownfield site, it may make sense to focus on a fuller contamination analysis of the soil via either of our contamination suites in conjunction with one of our fertility tests (some options are listed below):
SHIPPING INFO:
We will send you a testing kit that includes a soil sample bag and two small amber jars (these need to be filled right to the top because some of the elements we are testing for can interact with air) as well as instructions on how to take samples from your growing space. When you're done, place the sample back in the box that will have a pre-paid postage label already affixed, seal it and pop the package into a Royal Mail post box or drop it off at a local post office.