Testing labs in Poole

Analytical Construction Services (ACS Testing) is an independent, UKAS-accredited testing laboratory and consultancy headquartered in Poole, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Founded in 1987, ACS has spent more than 35 years delivering high-quality construction materials testing, chemical analysis, and geotechnical consultancy to the UK's building, civil engineering, quarrying, waste management, and environmental industries. The company operates from its main laboratory in Poole and maintains satellite laboratories in Bristol, Horsham, and Maidstone, giving it broad national coverage. Its services are fully backed by professional indemnity insurance and are executed under the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation standard, making ACS a trusted partner for clients who require defensible, certifiable test results. ACS provides an extensive range of physical and mechanical testing for construction materials, covering the principal material types encountered on modern construction and civil engineering projects. Concrete testing has been a core offering since the company's founding in 1987, and the scope now encompasses a wide range of UKAS-accredited methods applied to both fresh concrete (workability, air content, temperature) and hardened concrete (compressive strength, density, carbonation depth, and petrographic examination). Mortar and screed testing is also offered, including assessment of hardened mortar for mix proportions and constituent analysis, alongside compressive and flexural strength testing of new mortar mixes. Aggregates and soils testing — including primary and secondary aggregates, modified and stabilised soils, and polymer-stabilised materials — is performed to established British and European standards, providing grading, plasticity, strength, and durability data critical for pavement, earthworks, and foundation engineering decisions. Bituminous material testing represents another significant technical capability at ACS. The laboratory carries out testing on new bituminous binder materials and on hardened in-situ pavement cores, characterising physical and chemical properties for both specification compliance and forensic investigation. Notably, ACS has specific expertise in the identification of pre-1980s tar binders — a carcinogenic material formerly used in road construction — including sampling and laboratory analysis to determine whether tar (as distinct from modern bitumen) was used. This capability is particularly relevant for highway maintenance and refurbishment projects where heritage contamination risk must be assessed and managed before works commence. Natural stone testing is available from ACS's recently refurbished stone testing laboratory, which has expanded the accredited scope and improved sample throughput and turnaround times. ACS's Geo-Environmental Consultancy department, operating for over a decade within the group, extends the company's offering into site investigation, contaminated land assessment, and waste characterisation. The laboratory analyses chemical substances that may be harmful to human health, property, and the environment, providing the data needed for Phase II intrusive site investigations, remediation verification, and waste classification under UK environmental regulations. Supporting this, ACS coordinates with trusted specialist contractors to deliver buried utility surveys, topographical surveys (including drone-based surveys), specialist chemical analyses beyond the laboratory's direct scope, and unexploded ordnance surveys — making it possible to deliver a genuinely integrated site investigation service rather than fragmenting the work across multiple providers. ACS's on-site and mobile laboratory capability is a significant differentiator that sets it apart from a purely fixed-laboratory operation. Over 35 years, ACS has designed, equipped, and staffed custom-fitted site laboratories for major construction projects in the UK and internationally. Notable deployments have included road contracts, military installations, mining projects, and flood alleviation schemes, with projects as geographically diverse as the Falkland Islands (Mount Pleasant), Ascension Island (Catherine Point), and sites across mainland Britain such as the A30 Bodmin to Indian Queens scheme, the Newport Southern Distribution Road, Larkhill Cut & Fill, and Hemerdon Tungsten Mine. These mobile laboratories deliver UKAS-accredited testing of aggregates, bituminous materials, concrete, soils, and waters directly on site, eliminating transport time and enabling far faster compliance decisions than would be possible with a distant fixed laboratory. The company's quality and accreditation framework is comprehensive. ACS holds UKAS accreditation for both physical and chemical testing, and operates its training and quality management in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025:2017 — a standard that exceeds the requirements of ISO 9001. Internal training is governed by a Laboratory Quality Manual aligned to 17025. All site staff hold CSCS Cards and pass CIBT Health, Safety & Environment tests; activity-specific HSE training is provided and kept current. Many team members carry 20 or more years of industry experience, and the company employs graduate chemists and geoscientists who are working towards or hold chartered status with their professional bodies. ACS is also a member of relevant professional bodies within the construction and geoscience sectors. In terms of scale, ACS performs more than 60,000 construction tests and 55,000 chemical tests annually, serving approximately 1,500 unique sites each year. This throughput, combined with its satellite laboratory network and deployable on-site laboratory capability, enables ACS to respond rapidly to project demands across a wide geographic footprint. Clients benefit from clear, interpretive laboratory reports rather than raw data alone, reflecting the consultancy ethos that runs through the business. Whether a client needs a straightforward aggregate compliance certificate, a contaminated land chemical investigation, or an embedded site laboratory for a major infrastructure contract, ACS has the accreditation, experience, instrumentation, and personnel to deliver reliable, defensible results.

ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by UKAS (No. 4332) testing laboratory (accreditation status: active). Accredited test areas include: Bio Biocompatibility; Calibration Dimensional; Calibration Electrical; Calibration Temperature Pressure; Electrical Product Safety; Mechanical Tensile Compression Flexural. Located at BH17 7BA, Poole, United Kingdom.

ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by UKAS (No. 10052) testing laboratory (accreditation status: active). Located at BH17 0RB, Poole, United Kingdom.

Analytical Construction Services (ACS) is a UKAS-accredited UK laboratory providing construction-materials testing and analysis — concrete, soil and aggregates — across geotechnical and chemical testing.

ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by UKAS (No. 0227) testing laboratory (accreditation status: active). Accredited test areas include: Calibration Dimensional. Located at BH165SW, Poole, United Kingdom.

ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by UKAS (No. 28772) testing laboratory (accreditation status: active). Accredited test areas include: Electrical Product Safety; Em Radio Frequency; Env Climate Temperature; Env Vibration Shock. Located at BH15 3SS, Poole, United Kingdom.