🏗️ Testing of building soil samples — collective standard (PN-88/B-04481)
In short
A collective standard for laboratory testing of building soil: water content, density, particle size distribution, organic matter content and compaction index. The test is performed according to PN-B-04481:1988 (wersja polska); STATUS (state of the PKN card on 22-09-2026): WITHDRAWN — the "Data wycofania" [withdrawal date] row: 10-09-2015. The card has NO "Zastąpiona przez" [Replaced by] field: the catalogue does not indicate a successor. The procedure comprises 5 steps; it is used for: Recognising the citation "PN-88/B-04481 p. …" [p. = clause] in an accreditation scope and establishing which test it denotes, Assessment of the documentation of a geotechnical laboratory citing a standard withdrawn since 2015, Comparison of an older scope with a scope based on the PN-EN ISO 17892 series.
At a glance
- Standard: PN-B-04481:1988 (wersja polska)
- Category: Construction
- Procedure steps: 5
- STATUS (state of the PKN card on 22-09-2026): WITHDRAWN — the "Data wycofania" [withdrawal date] row: 10-09-2015. The card has NO "Zastąpiona przez" [Replaced by] field: the catalogue does not indicate a successor
- Does the legal act on geotechnics indicate this standard — CHECKED 22.09.2026: NO. The Regulation of the Minister of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy of 25 April 2012 on determining the geotechnical conditions for founding building structures (Journal of Laws 2012 item 463) DOES NOT MENTION PN-88/B-04481 even once — it names only EUROCODE 7: PN-EN 1997-1 and PN-EN 1997-2. It is to the Eurocode that the provision refers for the quality of samples for laboratory testing and for the documentation of ground investigations. Citing PN-88/B-04481 in an accreditation scope is therefore a DECISION OF THE LABORATORY, not the implementation of this provision
- THREE DIFFERENT ANSWERS TO THE QUESTION "WHAT TO TEST SOIL WITH" — and none excludes the others: THE ACT indicates Eurocode 7 (PN-EN 1997-1 and PN-EN 1997-2) — but these two standards appear ZERO times in accreditation scopes (measurement of 22-09-2026; a pattern without an element boundary gives 3 hits, all false — the string "1997-1" sits in PN-EN ISO 11997-1 on corrosion tests). THE SCOPES rest on the PN-EN ISO 17892 series — 106 entries at 20 laboratories counting the prefix of this series alone (127 at 28 when its predecessors PKN-CEN ISO/TS 17892 and notations outside the catalogue are added; breakdown at the item on the role of the successor). AND THE OLD PN-88/B-04481 lives alongside both in 168 entries at 45 laboratories. There is no contradiction here: the act speaks of the DOCUMENTATION of ground investigations, the scopes of test METHODS, and the 1988 standard of both at once. The number was counted in the reference document field of the scope database — the "Laboratories" tab searches in the same field
Overview
WHAT THIS STANDARD IS AND WHY IT IS CITED WITH A CLAUSE NUMBER. It is a COLLECTIVE document: 63 pages covering a dozen or so determinations performed on samples of building soil. That is why almost no one in accreditation scopes cites it as a whole — the citations take the form "PN-88/B-04481 p. 4.1", "p. 8", "p. 5.2.6" [p. = clause]. A CITATION WITHOUT A CLAUSE NUMBER DOES NOT SAY WHICH TEST WAS PERFORMED, and the standard describes many of them: natural and optimum water content, maximum dry density of the soil skeleton, sieve and hydrometer analysis, organic matter content, compaction index.
STATUS: A WITHDRAWN STANDARD, A CARD WITHOUT A SUCCESSOR. The PKN catalogue card (reading of 22.09.2026): the "Wycofana" [Withdrawn] header, the row "Data wycofania: 10-09-2015" [withdrawal date]; publication date 30-06-1988, 63 pages, Construction and Building Structures Sector, Technical Body KT 254 for Geotechnics, ICS 93.020; "Zastępuje PN-B-04452:1974 i PN-B-04481:1975" [Zastępuje = Replaces; i = and]. The card has NO "Zastąpiona przez" [Replaced by] field — the catalogue does not indicate a document that took over its tasks.
WHAT FOLLOWS FROM THIS FOR THE READER — AND WHY THIS IS NOT THE SAME CASE AS WITH COAL. A separate entry of the Knowledge Base concerns PN-G-04511:1980: that standard is also withdrawn and also has no successor on its card — but there the standard is kept in force by a regulation in force that indicates it directly, so the laboratory has a legal basis. HERE WE HAVE NOT FOUND SUCH A BASIS, AND WE SAY SO DIRECTLY: we have not checked all legal acts concerning earthworks and geotechnics as to whether any of them indicates PN-88/B-04481 by name. As long as there is no such indication, citing the withdrawn standard in an accreditation scope is a DECISION OF THE LABORATORY, not the implementation of a provision — and this is a difference the reader should know before comparing their scope with that of a neighbour.
SCALE — A STANDARD WITHDRAWN ELEVEN YEARS AGO AND STILL CITED MASSIVELY. Our own measurement on a copy of the database of accreditation scopes (22-09-2026, 19 h): PN-88/B-04481 appears in 168 entries at 45 laboratories, counting all forms of notation. The "Laboratories" tab for this entry searches with the prefix "PN-88/B-04481" and shows fewer — 124 entries at 33 laboratories — because the other notations begin differently (prefix "PN-B-04481:1988" — 42 entries at 17 laboratories) or have the number in the middle of a longer string. BOTH NUMBERS ARE TRUE AND CONCERN DIFFERENT SETS; we give them together so that they do not contradict each other on one screen.
A MAP OF THE CLAUSES OF THE STANDARD READ FROM THE ACCREDITATION SCOPES THEMSELVES — BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THE TEXT OF THE STANDARD. We matched the number of the clause cited in a scope entry with the methodology standing in the same line (measurement of 22-09-2026). This comparison shows what the successive clauses of this standard concern: • clause 3 — macroscopic analysis, determination of the type and state of the soil (2 citations); • clause 4.1 — sieve analysis, grain-size composition, particle size distribution, content of the fraction below 0.063 mm (30); • clause 4.2 — hydrometer analysis (2); • clause 4.4 — organic matter content (6), where 4.4.4.1 is the oxidation method (4) and 4.4.4.2 — loss on ignition (5); • clause 5.1 — natural water content (19); • clause 5.2.6 — bulk density; the compaction index is sometimes cited in the same clause (21); • clause 5.2.7 — maximum and minimum dry density of the soil skeleton (4); • clause 5.5 — plastic limit (3); • THE LIQUID LIMIT HAS TWO DIFFERENT CLAUSES IN THE SCOPES, NOT ONE — p. 5.6.2 and p. 5.6.4, one citation each, at two different laboratories (measurement of 22-09-2026 on two independent copies of the database). Why two is told by the TECHNIQUE column of the same two lines: at p. 5.6.2 stands "Metoda Casagrande’a" [Casagrande method], at p. 5.6.4 — "Metoda penetrometru stożkowego / Fall cone method" [cone penetrometer method]. These are the two classic ways of determining the liquid limit, so the standard most probably describes them in separate clauses. WE WRITE "MOST PROBABLY" BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THE TEXT OF THE STANDARD, and two citations are too few to decide anything — what is established is what stands in the scopes: two clauses, two techniques, one test; • clause 6.1 — oedometric modulus of compressibility (1); • clause 8 — optimum water content together with the maximum dry density of the skeleton, that is, the Proctor test (36 — THE MOST FREQUENT). THIS IS A READING FROM USE, NOT FROM THE TEXT OF THE STANDARD, and that is how we present it: accreditation scopes say what laboratories understand by a given clause, not what is literally written in it. What they do not decide: clauses 1, 2 and 7 — no entry cites them, so we know nothing about their content. AND THIRTY-THREE CITATIONS DO NOT GIVE A CLAUSE AT ALL — and this is precisely the group for which the reader does not know which of the eleven tests the laboratory has accredited. With a collective standard, a citation without a clause is not carelessness of notation; it is a lack of information that cannot be filled in from the scope alone.
WHAT TAKES OVER ITS TASKS — OUR ASSIGNMENT, NOT AN INDICATION ON THE CARD. Laboratory testing of soil is today described by the PN-EN ISO 17892 series (part 1 concerns water content, further parts density, particle size distribution and the other determinations); the card of PN-EN ISO 17892-1:2015-02 has no "Wycofana" [Withdrawn] header (reading of 22.09.2026). In the scopes, this series appears in 127 entries at 28 laboratories, and JOINT CITATIONS of both documents — in 12 entries. This distribution shows a transition in progress: the new series is already numerous, the old one still more numerous, and the "both at once" group small. RESERVATION: the card of PN-88/B-04481 does not indicate this series as a successor, so this is our functional assignment based on the subject of the tests and on the measurement, not on the document.
WHAT WE DO NOT GIVE. We did not have the text of the standard — PKN makes it available for a fee (63 pages). WE DO NOT GIVE: the content of the individual clauses, the conditions for performing any of the determinations, formulas, requirements for the apparatus or rules for interpreting the results. Nor have we established whether any legal act indicates this standard by name, or whether PKN intends to introduce the missing parts of the PN-EN ISO 17892 series — the check covered the catalogue cards, the database of accreditation scopes AND two legal acts (the geotechnical regulation, Journal of Laws 2012 item 463, and the technical conditions in the consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2022 item 1225) — both indicate Eurocode 7, neither mentions this standard.
Method principle
The standard gathers in one document the procedures for laboratory testing of building soil samples — from the determination of water content and density, through particle size distribution, to organic matter content and the compaction index. Each determination has its own clause, and accreditation scopes usually cite the clause, not the whole. We do not quote the procedures themselves, because we did not have the text of the standard.
Applications
- Recognising the citation "PN-88/B-04481 p. …" [p. = clause] in an accreditation scope and establishing which test it denotes
- Assessment of the documentation of a geotechnical laboratory citing a standard withdrawn since 2015
- Comparison of an older scope with a scope based on the PN-EN ISO 17892 series
- Reading older soil test reports in which a clause number was given instead of the name of the method
Key parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| STATUS (state of the PKN card on 22-09-2026) | WITHDRAWN — the "Data wycofania" [withdrawal date] row: 10-09-2015. The card has NO "Zastąpiona przez" [Replaced by] field: the catalogue does not indicate a successor |
| Does the legal act on geotechnics indicate this standard — CHECKED 22.09.2026 | NO. The Regulation of the Minister of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy of 25 April 2012 on determining the geotechnical conditions for founding building structures (Journal of Laws 2012 item 463) DOES NOT MENTION PN-88/B-04481 even once — it names only EUROCODE 7: PN-EN 1997-1 and PN-EN 1997-2. It is to the Eurocode that the provision refers for the quality of samples for laboratory testing and for the documentation of ground investigations. Citing PN-88/B-04481 in an accreditation scope is therefore a DECISION OF THE LABORATORY, not the implementation of this provision |
| THREE DIFFERENT ANSWERS TO THE QUESTION "WHAT TO TEST SOIL WITH" — and none excludes the others | THE ACT indicates Eurocode 7 (PN-EN 1997-1 and PN-EN 1997-2) — but these two standards appear ZERO times in accreditation scopes (measurement of 22-09-2026; a pattern without an element boundary gives 3 hits, all false — the string "1997-1" sits in PN-EN ISO 11997-1 on corrosion tests). THE SCOPES rest on the PN-EN ISO 17892 series — 106 entries at 20 laboratories counting the prefix of this series alone (127 at 28 when its predecessors PKN-CEN ISO/TS 17892 and notations outside the catalogue are added; breakdown at the item on the role of the successor). AND THE OLD PN-88/B-04481 lives alongside both in 168 entries at 45 laboratories. There is no contradiction here: the act speaks of the DOCUMENTATION of ground investigations, the scopes of test METHODS, and the 1988 standard of both at once. The number was counted in the reference document field of the scope database — the "Laboratories" tab searches in the same field |
| The second act — technical conditions for buildings — RESOLVED: the CONSOLIDATED TEXT had to be read, not the original | originally we wrote here that the regulation on technical conditions (Journal of Laws 2002 No. 75 item 690) COULD NOT be resolved, because the copy in the register is a scan with a damaged character reading and does not contain the annex with the list of standards. THAT WAS THE WRONG COPY. The act has the status "uznany za uchylony" [deemed repealed] in the register and THREE consolidated texts (Journal of Laws 2015 item 1422, Journal of Laws 2019 item 1065, Journal of Laws 2022 item 1225); the latest of them is a DIGITAL text, has 5620 lines, 255 occurrences of the string "PN-" and Annex No. 1 "WYKAZ POLSKICH NORM POWOŁANYCH W ROZPORZĄDZENIU" [LIST OF POLISH STANDARDS CITED IN THE REGULATION]. RESULT: PN-88/B-04481 does not appear in this list EVEN ONCE. On the other hand, neighbouring standards of the same family appear (PN-B-01706, PN-B-01707, PN-B-02151-02, PN-B-02151-3, PN-B-02151-4, PN-B-02156, PN-B-02170, PN-B-02171 and others) — that is, the legislator had this family in front of it and did not indicate this particular standard. The list does, however, indicate "PN-EN 1997* : Eurokod 7: Projektowanie geotechniczne" [Eurokod = Eurocode; Projektowanie geotechniczne = Geotechnical design] — the number and the title stand in ONE row of the table, so the reading is certain. AS REGARDS THE MEANING OF THE ASTERISK, WE GIVE WHAT IS VISIBLE, NOT AN INTERPRETATION: in the block of item 49 (§ 204(4)) all Eurocodes from PN-EN 1990 to PN-EN 1999 are listed with an asterisk, and under the last of them, in the same title column, stands the row "(wszystkie części norm)" [all parts of the standards]. This is not a separate explanation of the asterisk in a footnote — there is NO such explanation in the annex; it is the entry closing the block. We understand it as "all parts of the listed Eurocodes", but we state directly that this is our reading of the table layout, not a quotation from a definition (clarified 22.09.2026: with acts typeset in columns, PDF conversion can JOIN what stands separately in the document, just as OCR can SPLIT a number). Measurement of 22.09.2026 on two independent copies of the database, consistent as to every number |
| The limit of this resolution — what we have NOT established | the 2022 consolidated text itself has the status "uznany za uchylony" [deemed repealed] in the register, and the field "Uchylenia wynikające z" [repeals resulting from] indicates the Act on ensuring accessibility (Journal of Laws 2019 item 1696) — the repeal concerns PART of the provisions, and we HAVE NOT ESTABLISHED which. Nor have we checked whether the list of standards itself has been amended after April 2022. That is why the sentence reads: "this standard is not in the list of Polish Standards cited in the technical conditions (consolidated text Journal of Laws 2022 item 1225); the list indicates the PN-EN 1997 series — Eurocode 7" — without claiming that the provision is in force today in this form. We have not checked the technical conditions of contracting authorities (GDDKiA, PKP PLK), which are sometimes indicated in scopes with this standard |
| How it differs from PN-G-04511 (determination of moisture in coal, a separate entry) | there a withdrawn standard IS INDICATED by a regulation in force, so the laboratory has a legal basis. Here we have not found such a basis — these two cases look the same (a withdrawn standard in a scope), but they are not the same |
| What lies behind the individual clauses (a reading from the scopes, not from the standard) | p. 3 — macroscopic analysis; p. 4.1 — sieve analysis and particle size distribution (30 citations); p. 4.2 — hydrometer analysis; p. 4.4 — organic matter (4.4.4.1 oxidation, 4.4.4.2 loss on ignition); p. 5.1 — natural water content (19); p. 5.2.6 — bulk density and compaction index (21); p. 5.2.7 — maximum and minimum dry density of the skeleton; p. 5.5 — plastic limit; p. 5.6.2 and p. 5.6.4 — liquid limit, one citation each (5.6.2 by the Casagrande method, 5.6.4 with the cone penetrometer); p. 6.1 — oedometric modulus of compressibility; p. 8 — optimum water content with the maximum dry density of the skeleton, that is, Proctor (36, the most frequent). The scopes say nothing about clauses 1, 2 and 7 |
| Citations WITHOUT a clause number | 33 of 168 entries. With a standard covering eleven different tests, such a citation does not say what the laboratory has accredited — and this cannot be filled in from the scope alone |
| Why it is cited with a clause number | it is a COLLECTIVE standard — 63 pages and a dozen or so determinations. A citation without a clause number does not say which test was performed |
| Most frequent forms of citation in the scopes | "PN-88/B-04481 p.4.1" (20 entries), "PN-88/B-04481" without a clause (18), "p.8" (17), "PN-B-04481:1988" without a clause (14), "p.5.2.6" together with BN-77/8931-12 p.4 (10), "p. 8" with a space (10) — measurement of 22-09-2026, 19 h. SUPPLEMENT OF 23-09-2026 (the pattern was matched to one form of the abbreviation): the list above omitted a THIRD abbreviation of the same concept — "pkt" [pkt, p. = clause]. It occurs with this standard in TWO entries at one laboratory (AB 1806: "PN-B-04481:1988 pkt. 5.1" — water content, and "PN-B-04481:1988 pkt. 4.4" — organic matter content and loss on ignition). Full breakdown: a clause is indicated in 134 of 168 entries, including "p." with a space 64, "p." without a space 68, "pkt" 2; without a clause indicated 34. Anyone counting clause citations by the form "p." alone would get 132 instead of 134 — and this number would look cautious, not wrong. In the entire scope database both forms are widespread: "pkt" 2095 entries versus "p." with a digit 3050 — both numbers are ENTRIES (documents of the collection), matched anywhere in the reference document field or in the standard field, reading of 23-09-2026 from the copy of the scope database |
| Scale of citations — two numbers, two sets | 168 entries at 45 laboratories counting ALL forms of notation; 124 entries at 33 laboratories counting with the PREFIX "PN-88/B-04481" — and this is what the laboratories tab shows for this entry |
| Most frequent methodologies in the scopes | compaction index Is (11 entries in the notation "(ls)" and 5 in "(Is)"), optimum water content together with the maximum dry density of the skeleton (11), natural water content (10), just "Wilgotność" [water content] (8), sieve analysis (7), organic matter content (5) |
| The transition to the PN-EN ISO 17892 series is a change in the STRUCTURE of the document, not only of the number | one collective standard with eleven tests under clause numbers gives way to a SERIES in which EACH TEST HAS ITS OWN PART — part 1 is "Oznaczanie wilgotności naturalnej" [Determination of natural water content] (PKN card, reading of 22.09.2026). The part number has replaced the clause number, so the citation ceases to be ambiguous in itself: in the scopes only 21 of the 127 entries with this series still give a clause number. The most frequently cited parts: -4 (28 occurrences), -12 (21), -1 and -11 (13 each), -10 (12) |
| What performs its role today — a functional assignment | the PN-EN ISO 17892 series (laboratory testing of soil); the card of part 1 of 2015-02 without the "Wycofana" [Withdrawn] header. In the scopes: 127 entries at 28 laboratories. THE CARD OF PN-88/B-04481 DOES NOT INDICATE THIS SERIES — it is our assignment by the subject of the tests, not an indication by a document OWN CORRECTION (22-09-2026, element-boundary trap): the figure 127 at 28 comes from the pattern "17892" WITHOUT AN ANCHOR and mixes three different things. The prefix "PN-EN ISO 17892" alone gives 106 entries at 20 laboratories. The rest consists of: PKN-CEN ISO/TS 17892-* and ISO/TS 17892-* — the predecessors of the series in the rank of technical specifications, cited to this day (most numerously parts 11, 4 and 5), and SEVEN entries at FIVE laboratories with the designation "PN-EN 17892" (without the ISO element), which the PKN catalogue does not know — in four forms of notation: "PN-EN 17892:2024-11" (3), "PN-EN 17892:2024 -11" with a space before the month (2), "PN-EN 17892:2024- 11, część B" [część = part] (1) and "PN-EN 17892:2024-11 część A" (1). CORRECTION OF 22-09-2026: we previously gave SIX here, because we counted the OCCURRENCES of the first three forms instead of the ENTRIES of all four — the same pair "entries versus occurrences" that we describe in the same entry three paragraphs above — the shop's search engine for "PN-EN 17892" returns only parts of PN-EN ISO 17892. The number proper to the EN ISO series alone is 106 at 20; 127 at 28 is the series TOGETHER with its predecessors and with notations outside the catalogue. |
| Has the transition already taken place — a measurement | NO, it is in progress: PN-88/B-04481 alone — 168 entries, the 17892 series alone — 127, BOTH AT ONCE — 12 entries at 5 laboratories. A small joint group alongside two numerous separate groups is a picture of a transition in progress, not of an alternative |
| Building soil versus soil as an environment — two different worlds | entries with PN-88/B-04481 do not appear EVEN ONCE together with PN-ISO 10381, ISO 18400 or PN-R-04031 (measurement of 22-09-2026). A reader looking for "soil testing" in a contamination case lands here on a standard that does not concern their question |
| Content of the standard | WE DO NOT GIVE IT — we did not have the text (63 pages, KT 254 for Geotechnics, ICS 93.020). This concerns the content of the clauses, the conditions for performing the determinations, formulas and requirements for the apparatus |
Standard
- Standard number
- PN-B-04481:1988 (wersja polska)
- Title (PL)
- Grunty budowlane — Badania próbek gruntu
- Title (EN)
- Building soils — Testing of soil samples
Step-by-step procedure
-
Establishing which clause the citation concerns
With this standard this is the first step, not a formality: the 63 pages cover a dozen or so determinations. The accreditation scope and the report should give the clause number — "PN-88/B-04481" without a clause does not say which test was performed.
-
Checking whether citing a withdrawn standard is permissible in the given application
The standard has been withdrawn since 10-09-2015, and its card does not indicate a successor. If the test is performed on the basis of a provision or a contract, it must be checked whether that document permits withdrawn standards — we have not established such a basis for this standard.
-
Sampling and securing the sample
In water content determinations, time and the tightness of the packaging are part of the method: water lost between sampling and weighing makes the result too low, while the subsequent operations proceed correctly.
-
Performing the determination according to the relevant clause
The conditions, formulas and requirements for the apparatus are the content of the standard and we do not quote them. This also applies to the compaction index, which is a quantity related to the maximum dry density of the skeleton from a separate determination.
-
Recording the result with the clause and the status of the document stated
In the report, give the clause number of the standard and the fact that the document has been withdrawn — the recipient of the result has the right to know on what basis the test was performed, especially when comparing with a laboratory applying the PN-EN ISO 17892 series.
Required equipment and apparatus
| Equipment | Example | Indicative price |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment depending on the clause of the standard | The standard covers a dozen or so determinations with different equipment (drying oven, balances, a set of sieves, a hydrometer, a Proctor apparatus). We do not quote the requirements — they are in the text of the standard, which we did not have | — |
| Airtight sample containers | When determining natural water content, water lost before weighing makes the result too low and leaves no trace in the subsequent procedure | — |
Reagents, media and consumables
| Reagent | CAS | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Depending on the determination | — | Each determination of this standard has its own reagents. We do not give their types, concentrations and use: we did not have the text of the standard |
Health and safety (OHS)
- The drying oven and the dishes after drying are hot
- Chemical reagents are used in hydrometer analysis and in the determination of organic matter — proceed according to the safety data sheets
- Soil samples from post-industrial sites may contain contaminants of unknown origin; if contamination is suspected, use gloves and extraction
Frequently asked questions
Which standard describes this test?
The test is performed according to PN-B-04481:1988 (wersja polska) — “Building soils — Testing of soil samples”.
How does this method work?
The standard gathers in one document the procedures for laboratory testing of building soil samples — from the determination of water content and density, through particle size distribution, to organic matter content and the compaction index. Each determination has its own clause, and accreditation scopes usually cite the clause, not the whole.
What is the measuring range and accuracy?
STATUS (state of the PKN card on 22-09-2026): WITHDRAWN — the "Data wycofania" [withdrawal date] row: 10-09-2015. The card has NO "Zastąpiona przez" [Replaced by] field: the catalogue does not indicate a successor; Does the legal act on geotechnics indicate this standard — CHECKED 22.09.2026: NO. The Regulation of the Minister of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy of 25 April 2012 on determining the geotechnical conditions for founding building structures (Journal of Laws 2012 item 463) DOES NOT MENTION PN-88/B-04481 even once — it names only EUROCODE 7: PN-EN 1997-1 and PN-EN 1997-2. It is to the Eurocode that the provision refers for the quality of samples for laboratory testing and for the documentation of ground investigations. Citing PN-88/B-04481 in an accreditation scope is therefore a DECISION OF THE LABORATORY, not the implementation of this provision; THREE DIFFERENT ANSWERS TO THE QUESTION "WHAT TO TEST SOIL WITH" — and none excludes the others: THE ACT indicates Eurocode 7 (PN-EN 1997-1 and PN-EN 1997-2) — but these two standards appear ZERO times in accreditation scopes (measurement of 22-09-2026; a pattern without an element boundary gives 3 hits, all false — the string "1997-1" sits in PN-EN ISO 11997-1 on corrosion tests). THE SCOPES rest on the PN-EN ISO 17892 series — 106 entries at 20 laboratories counting the prefix of this series alone (127 at 28 when its predecessors PKN-CEN ISO/TS 17892 and notations outside the catalogue are added; breakdown at the item on the role of the successor). AND THE OLD PN-88/B-04481 lives alongside both in 168 entries at 45 laboratories. There is no contradiction here: the act speaks of the DOCUMENTATION of ground investigations, the scopes of test METHODS, and the 1988 standard of both at once. The number was counted in the reference document field of the scope database — the "Laboratories" tab searches in the same field; The second act — technical conditions for buildings — RESOLVED: the CONSOLIDATED TEXT had to be read, not the original: originally we wrote here that the regulation on technical conditions (Journal of Laws 2002 No. 75 item 690) COULD NOT be resolved, because the copy in the register is a scan with a damaged character reading and does not contain the annex with the list of standards. THAT WAS THE WRONG COPY. The act has the status "uznany za uchylony" [deemed repealed] in the register and THREE consolidated texts (Journal of Laws 2015 item 1422, Journal of Laws 2019 item 1065, Journal of Laws 2022 item 1225); the latest of them is a DIGITAL text, has 5620 lines, 255 occurrences of the string "PN-" and Annex No. 1 "WYKAZ POLSKICH NORM POWOŁANYCH W ROZPORZĄDZENIU" [LIST OF POLISH STANDARDS CITED IN THE REGULATION]. RESULT: PN-88/B-04481 does not appear in this list EVEN ONCE. On the other hand, neighbouring standards of the same family appear (PN-B-01706, PN-B-01707, PN-B-02151-02, PN-B-02151-3, PN-B-02151-4, PN-B-02156, PN-B-02170, PN-B-02171 and others) — that is, the legislator had this family in front of it and did not indicate this particular standard. The list does, however, indicate "PN-EN 1997* : Eurokod 7: Projektowanie geotechniczne" [Eurokod = Eurocode; Projektowanie geotechniczne = Geotechnical design] — the number and the title stand in ONE row of the table, so the reading is certain. AS REGARDS THE MEANING OF THE ASTERISK, WE GIVE WHAT IS VISIBLE, NOT AN INTERPRETATION: in the block of item 49 (§ 204(4)) all Eurocodes from PN-EN 1990 to PN-EN 1999 are listed with an asterisk, and under the last of them, in the same title column, stands the row "(wszystkie części norm)" [all parts of the standards]. This is not a separate explanation of the asterisk in a footnote — there is NO such explanation in the annex; it is the entry closing the block. We understand it as "all parts of the listed Eurocodes", but we state directly that this is our reading of the table layout, not a quotation from a definition (clarified 22.09.2026: with acts typeset in columns, PDF conversion can JOIN what stands separately in the document, just as OCR can SPLIT a number). Measurement of 22.09.2026 on two independent copies of the database, consistent as to every number.
How long does the test take?
The procedure comprises 5 steps. The standard does not give a duration for every stage — the laboratory's own procedure decides.
What equipment is required?
Equipment depending on the clause of the standard, Airtight sample containers.
Where is this test used?
Recognising the citation "PN-88/B-04481 p. …" [p. = clause] in an accreditation scope and establishing which test it denotes; Assessment of the documentation of a geotechnical laboratory citing a standard withdrawn since 2015; Comparison of an older scope with a scope based on the PN-EN ISO 17892 series; Reading older soil test reports in which a clause number was given instead of the name of the method.
What safety precautions apply?
The drying oven and the dishes after drying are hot; Chemical reagents are used in hydrometer analysis and in the determination of organic matter — proceed according to the safety data sheets; Soil samples from post-industrial sites may contain contaminants of unknown origin; if contamination is suspected, use gloves and extraction.
Which laboratory can perform this test?
The test is performed by laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025. On LabCoda you can find them by the standard number PN-88/B-04481.