Soil testing

What do I look for when finding a soil tester?
What should I get in return for how much?
My sister once had a soil test done and then went to a new builder who said that one wasn't good enough and charged her again for a new test.
We haven't committed to a builder yet but would like to get soil testing done so we can start with a realistic floor plan and gauge budgets a little more accurately.
So what do I look for when shopping for a soil tester?

Any builder you choose will do their own soil test.

I'd like to get testing done so we can be more accurate with the right floor plans (is that common?)
And haven't yet chosen a builder.

We did our own before starting design. The more valuable piece of work for you is the site survey, which shows the contours and any obstructions. We then dumped the custom design and went through 2 iterations of project builds, so ended up with 3 x soil tests and 3 x contour tests.

For the first one, we just used a soil testing company that our designer suggested.

LOL..3 soil tests.... that said the same thing?
What a rip...
For an individual build try this
Get a complete Design, Engineering & Construction (AEC) BIM (Building information Modelling) Service
from someone you can trust. Tips
1. Own the Design and copyright
2. Get 3 builders to quote
3. Show them you mean business & you want a fair go
4. Always backup your decision making with Accurate Data and Proofs
5. In 4, above tell them why.. otherwise they will keep doing it to others
bianks if you have a difficult site put up contours and sketches & ask questions
here's a start
1. Check if anyone has built nearby... ask them
2 .If it's a new estate ask here on Homeone..try to meet your neighbors.. learn from their experiences
homeone it would be nice if we had a meet the past neighbors that may no longer be active ..just a thought
3. You can always ask a professional expert here rather than a salesman elsewhere.

We arranged our own site survey and soil tests prior to engaging a builder (these really need to be done before you can get a decent price indication from a builder anyway, which itself then impacts on design choice).

As we were interviewing prospective builders, we made sure to ask who they used - and then we selected based on the ones most commonly used by our builder "shortlist". We might've paid one or two hundred bucks more than the builder's price, but having the info up front was more than worth it.

Came in quite handy when our original first choice of builder went under (fortunately just before we'd signed the contract); our current builder has reused the same surveys without us having to pay for a second round.

Yes. We started off doing your steps 1 - 4 with a designer and then went to tender with 5 builders, but shelved the design.

Project builders (Metricon, Porter Davis) won't use independent soil & site surveys, they do their own. The only benefit is that as they're large builders, those costs are subsidised into the overall build price. We know we wasted money by going through the process 3 times, however confident that we got the best outcome for our $ and block in the end.

What should I look for when choosing a surveyor?
I had one quote which was just over $600 combined soil test and survey
And then another quote nearly $2000 for surveying only?!

They are two different services.

One is a soil test and feature survey which involves producing a scale drawing of your block with any relevant features(footpaths, trees,service pits including adjoining buildings windows etc) and should have block elevation levels as well..
This is usually done for large volume builders as a package deal including the slab design as well.

The other more expensive service is performed by a licensed surveyor who will check and mark out the exact location of your block boundaries with survey pegs.You may need this kind of service with neighbouring property boundary disputes or if the existing survey pegs have been removed and your property boundaries are unclear.

So should I just start with the basic one and only escalate to the more involved survey later if there's issues?
We don't think we will be using a high volume builder.

bianks if you are at a preliminary stage why would you want to pay for any full service up front without a price sketch/design estimate?
If its a new estate then your block should be pegged and the developer would already have specified soil condition/type?
The soil tests then becomes a formality

structuralguy I don't know this is all news to me building first time and I don't understand a thing... I just told my other half by the end of the year I would have liked to tick a few preliminary things off the list.
But those things are things I don't understand.
So we want to custom build and thought we would at least start with floorplans and any formalities that must be complied with to get this done successfully.
So I wouldn't need to go to the trouble of such extensive surveying?

Think of the process this way.
If I was to borrow an analogy to describe the design process I would use a painter/artists process
Start with Pencil lines-> Broad brush strokes-> Fill in the finer colour details
it is important to try & stay within the pencil boundaries from the start
The same applies for the siteworks, engineering, construction costs & following processes
Broad estimate data based on sketches & Information-> Fill in the details-> stay within the boundaries
Unfortunately Artists/designers/builders do not understand data & cost boundary conditions
(eg my total sketch budget is $200K-> plus final engineering costs $50K -> $250K, plus upgrades $50K->$300K..... the banks will be unhappy you've bump the borrowings and the valuations don't stack up?)
Designers, new homes salesman & Builders all make more money when you are forced to increase cost boundaries
BTW, engineering is always an issue for the Battlers & Punters...hth