Six projects, 1.1 million square feet
New construction Metric is inspecting now or has recently completed in Brooklyn, from 52,000 to nearly 470,000 square feet. Client references are available on request.
894 Fountain Avenue
All required special inspections
117 Glenmore Avenue
All required special inspections
2957 Shell Road
All required special inspections
Bartlett Crossing — 667 Flushing Ave & 31 Bartlett St
All required special inspections and SWPPP
773 Neptune Avenue
All required special inspections
2602 Pitkin Avenue
All required special inspections
In Brooklyn you are almost never founding on rock
A terminal moraine — the ridge of debris dropped at the southern edge of the last ice sheet — runs east to west across the borough and on into Queens, through Highland Park and the band of cemeteries. South of that ridge the glacier's meltwater laid down an outwash plain roughly five miles wide: sand, silt and clay under Flatbush, Canarsie and Coney Island.
Underneath all of it, the bedrock of Long Island lies largely below sea level. That is the practical difference between a Brooklyn job and a Manhattan one. In Manhattan the schist comes up to the surface and outcrops in the parks. In Brooklyn it does not, so your building is supported by soil, by fill, or by piles driven through both — and every one of those has to be inspected before it is covered.
The southern and western edges are made ground
Large parts of south and west Brooklyn are reclaimed or hydraulically filled land. Engineering studies of the city describe this material as very loose and, in a major earthquake, highly unstable — the parts of the city flagged for liquefaction potential include the southern and western ends of Brooklyn. Two of the projects above, 2957 Shell Road and 773 Neptune Avenue, sit in that coastal belt.
The water table there is shallow, which makes dewatering harder and slower than the schedule usually assumes. Layers of peat and clay add settlement risk, and depending on how thick they are and how deep they sit, they have to be removed, reinforced, or bypassed entirely with deep foundations. None of that is unusual here. On this side of the borough it is the normal starting point.
Sources: NYC Parks, Geological History of New York City; Engineering geology of New York City, IAEG 2006.
The inspections a Brooklyn site tends to need
Your TR1 is what decides, not the borough. But on this ground the same categories come up again and again.
Subsurface and subgrade
Subsurface investigations (TR4) before drilling, and subgrade inspection before footings. On made ground this is the step that decides whether the design still matches reality.
Fill placement and density
In-place density on every lift. Our own guide to soil compaction testing on NYC job sites covers how the test is run and what a failing lift costs you.
Deep foundations
Continuous inspection of deep foundation elements (TR5) and helical piles (TR5H). See pile driving and deep foundation inspections in New York.
The building next door
Underpinning at every pit, and operations influencing adjacent structures. On tight Brooklyn lots this is where jobs stop. See shoring, underpinning and monitoring adjacent buildings.
Concrete, start to finish
Design mix (TR3) before the first pour, sampling and testing (TR2) every pour, cast-in-place inspection at every pour and when the rebar is complete. Cylinders are broken in our own laboratory.
Flood zone compliance
Required before sign-off where it applies — which, along the southern shore, is often. The full list is in our TR1 checklist for general contractors.
Questions we get from Brooklyn contractors
Do you cover all of Brooklyn?
Yes, and the rest of the city. Metric works across the five boroughs plus Nassau and Suffolk, from one office and laboratory at 184 Engineers Drive in Hicksville. There are no satellite offices, the inspectors are Metric's own staff, and all testing is done in house.
How much notice do you need for an inspection?
As a working rule: one business day for scheduled pours and steel inspections; same day for sampling at the truck if an inspector is already on site; about a week for anything that needs the laboratory ready, such as pile load tests, prisms or large sampling programs.
My site is near the water in south Brooklyn. What should I expect?
Expect the ground to drive the schedule. Subsurface investigation and subgrade inspection matter more than usual, fill gets checked lift by lift, dewatering takes longer than planned, and deep foundations are common. Budget inspection time for the substructure, not just for the superstructure.
Do I need a separate laboratory for the concrete?
No. Metric holds its own DOB concrete testing laboratory license and is A2LA accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, so sampling, curing and breaking all happen in house. One agency signs the TR1 and the lab reports come from the same place.
Does my job need a Class 1 agency?
It depends on the categories on your permit, not on where the job is. What a Class 1 special inspection agency is explains which categories require accreditation rather than plain registration — and why that distinction matters when the TR1 is signed.
Working on something that needs a Class 1 agency?
Send the drawings or the TR1. We call you back within the hour during office hours (Mon–Fri, 7 AM–4:30 PM ET) with the categories we cover and a quote.