Helical piles have been used to support large compression and tension loads in the US for almost 200 years.  This project is by no means a new concept, but rather an idea that has gotten lost in recent decades to the conventional methods of digging and pouring large slabs of concrete.  There are many reasons to consider an alternative to concrete foundations.

Our customer investigated his options before starting this project as his retirement home for he and his wife.  They both wanted to leave this densely wooded property as close to its natural state as they could which made them unexcited to widen the narrow drive for heavy equipment or to remove large amounts of trees and earth to make way for a massive permanent concrete foundation.  Our system did not require any earth removal and is completed with one mini excavator custom equipped with our pile drive motor.  We did however decide to grade the site enough to take the elevation drop from 9 feet to 4 feet so we didn’t have so much pipe out of the ground at the downhill end.

All of our piles take just 10 minutes to drive per 7′ section.  The design is such that the screw thread portion follows itself into the ground leaving the earth almost untouched.  As advancement occurs, the hydraulic pressure increases until we achieve the requirement of torque needed for each piles compression capacity.  When the capacity is achieved we can cut the pile to the needed elevation and cap it with an adjustable bracket of choice ( saddles, flat plates, i beams, offsets ).  All of which are easily replaced or adjusted at any point in the building process.

From Homes to bridges and decks, we have a system that has low environmental impact while achieving load capacities large enough to be a good option to concrete work.