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Showing posts from February, 2022

Screw Piles - Safely Supporting Buildings, Gantries and Towers

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Screw piles are a type of engineering that has been around for ages. Man has needed to sustain structures for as long as he has erected them, whether during initial construction or subsequently when they require repair or improvement. Modern screw piles give civil engineers another flexible and cost-effective tool in their toolbox. What exactly are screw piles? Screw Piles also known as helical steel piles is the most recent evolution of a technique invented by Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell in the 1830s for use on lighthouse supports. Today's version of Mitchell's concept typically consists of a robust but light galvanised steel shaft with welded low-pitch steel plates, resulting in a device that resembles the traditional Archimedes screw.  On-site, simple hand-held or machine-mounted drilling equipment is used to screw the piles into the ground. Pile foundation technology has provided engineers with a portable and compact solution for sites with a variety of constrain

What Should You Expect When Having a Screw Pile Foundation Installed?

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Basic structures such as homes, buildings and other types of real estate require a solid and stable foundation in order for them to remain very long, durable and standing owing to the screw piles. In general, the foundations of these structures are very important because they transfer the load to the load-bearing layers of soil and rock. To date, the foundations can be divided into shallow and deep.  Shallow foundations are maximized when the load is small compared to the bearing capacity of the surface soil of the structure. Deep foundations, on the other hand, are always used when the soil above ground does not have sufficient load-bearing capacity to effectively support the load of the structure like the pile foundation.  Overview of Pile Foundations A type of deep foundation, a pile foundation, is actually an elongated structure such as concrete or steel that is used to support the structure and transfer the load to the desired depth via either end bearings or surface friction.