Abstract It is often necessary to track incremental changes in the physical properties of composites with portland cement binders caused by chemical attack, freeze-thaw cycles, and other deterioration mechanisms. The vibration testing procedure presented for measuring the resonant frequency of a specimen is directly applicable to the monitoring of the deterioration of stabilized/solidified waste specimens. The change in the fundamental frequency is significantly more sensitive than the loss of mass to the internal changes in the mechanical properties of specimens. The time and effort required to determine the fundamental frequency of a specimen is also significantly less than that required to determine the loss of mass of the same specimen. The proposed method has been demonstrated to work on small cylindrical specimens (44 mm by 74 mm) with aspect ratios less than 2.0. The use of elastomeric bands as the means of attachment of the specimen to the test equipment does not interfere with or limit other chemical and mechanical performance tests scheduled for the specimens.