ISO 11464:2006 specifies the pretreatments required for soil samples that are to be subjected to physico-chemical analyses of stable and non-volatile parameters and describes the following five types of pretreatment of samples: drying, crushing, sieving, dividing and milling.

The pretreatment procedures described in ISO 11464:2006 are not applicable if they affect the results of the determinations to be made. ISO 11464:2006 is also not applicable to samples when volatile compounds are measured. In general, International Standards for analytical methods will state when it is necessary to adopt other procedures.