Wash Boring Method Of Soil Exploration Procedure, Advantages & Disadvantages
The soil exploration is basically done by various methods to get information about the soil condition of the chosen site.
As we already know that there are different methods for soil exploration like Auger Boring, Rotary Drilling, Percussion Drilling, Core Drilling, etc, and the Wash Boring Method Of Soil Exploration is one of them.
Wash Boring Method Of Soil Exploration
Basically, the wash boring is used mainly for advancing the hole in the ground.
Procedure Of Wash Boring–
In the wash boring method of soil exploration, we first drill a wash borehole inside the soil, after that, we pushed a casing inside the borehole of the size of 2 to 3 meters long.
Now it’s time to insert a Hollow Drill Rod with a chisel-shaped chopping bit at its lower end.
Now we pumped the water into the hollow drill rod. Due to a small hole in the chopping bit, the water becomes like a strong jet.

Due to the action of the water jet and chopping the soil is starting to disintegrate in the form of soil water slurry and the hole starts to increase.
The soil water slurry goes up to the surface through the space between the casing and the hollow drill rod.
The soil water slurry collected in the tub through the T-shaped pipe. ( the sample of soil water slurry collected in the tub does not represent the soil’s true condition)
Now for further advancing the hole the chopping bit is alternately raising and dropping with the help of a lifting device consisting of a rope or chain winding around a horizontal rotating drum.
When the casing is ending we can provide additional pieces of the casing at the top. In stable, cohesive soil there is not any requirement of providing casing.
More Read- Auger Boring For Soil Exploration- Method, Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages Of Wash Boring
Here are the following advantages of using wash boring for soil exploration:
1- We can collect the soil sample in the wash boring method with the help of a sampler after the hole has been drilled.
2- The various equipment used in the wash boring method is very light and economical.
3- No extra skills are required to perform this test.
4- The chance in strata can be provided by the reaction of chopping bit and change in the color of soil water slurry.
Disadvantages Of Wash Boring
Here are the disadvantages of the wash boring method used for soil exploration:
1- The main disadvantage of wash boring is, it cannot be used for hard types of soil, rocks, and soils containing boulders.
2- The wash boring is slow in stiff soils and coarse-grained soils.
3- This method is not good for taking good quality undisturbed samples above the ground table.
4- In the wash boring method the particles are completely broken down.
5- In this method the fine particles are lost.
More Read- Methods Of Boring For Soil Sampling For Soil Investigation
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the wash boring method?
The wash boring method is basically a method to get information about the soil characteristics and their engineering properties by drilling holes inside the soil.
Why is wash boring used?
Basically, the wash boring method is used for drilling the hole in the soil but it is also used to determine the change in soil strata and also used for collecting the soil sample for further investigation.
What is the procedure for washing boring?
First, we drill a hole and put the casing inside it. Now we put the hollow drill rode and force down the water inside the hollow drill rode.
Due to the action of water jet and chopping the cutting of the soil started and it came on the ground surface in the form of water soil slurry.
This process is performed until we get the desired depth of the hole inside the soil.