Everyone can agree that safety has become an integral part of any construction site. We all have the same goal — to come home safely at the end of every day.

Before the homeowner turns up the thermostat, before the HVAC contractor installs the equipment, and before you place the loops and grout the borehole, there is Step 1: the drilling of a good hole that stays open and allows for the loop to be installed to the required depth.

Be it vertical rotary mud drilling, horizontal directional drilling or foundation drilling, one commonly overlooked factor in maintaining borehole stability is hydrostatic head pressure.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away … well, OK, maybe it was in a state not really so far away.

One challenge for many drilling contractors is disposing of drilling fluids. Many states are imposing tighter regulations on contractors regarding the disposal of this liquid waste.

The Holy Grail is ”a sacred object … said to possess miraculous powers,” according to Wikipedia.

When pumpable, one-step, high-solids grouts hit the market in the late 1980s, solids content ranged from 20 percent to 30 percent. There were two-step pumpable grouts already in the market at that time and these were less than 20 percent solids.

I bet a lot of readers think they’re pretty careful — and environmentally considerate — when handling drilling fluids and solids byproducts. But, I was thinking of this recently as I attended the Underground Construction Technology (UCT) event in Atlanta last month.

New regulations on hold, but drillers need to be prepared.